Mike's Minute: The Treaty Principles Bill is a half-baked, deeply divided mess

The Treaty Principals Bill is on its way to the gallows as the select committee came back Friday and suggested it wasn’t getting its support.

It was voted past first reading but it wont get past round two.

What I learned out of it was several things.

1) This country is not up for much of a debate around complex or big ideas. We are myopic in our approach. We hate and we love and middle ground is irrelevant.

There was a venom and aggressiveness to a lot of submissions.

2) From those who submitted that actually knew what they were talking about, as opposed to merely having an opinion, it very quickly became clear there is massive disagreement over interpretation.

These were scholars and lawyers and historians, in other words, "experts". They couldn’t agree.

That to me was the big clue. If the “learned” can't agree, surely that means we need something, legally speaking, to define what we are dealing with.

There is a major case in Christchurch at the moment between Ngai Tahu and the Crown over water rights.

It is in the court because there is nothing definitive in law as to what the Treaty does, and doesn’t, do.

We seem to accept that Parliament is the ultimate court, yet on the Treaty we appear happy to litigate for decade after decade, have a tribunal that is wildly tainted and nothing like a proper court, and each and every time we dabble in this area you and I are picking up the tab.

The other outworking of course is the ongoing grief and angst.

This is a very divided nation. This is not a harmonious nation with an agreed legal stance around the Treaty.

But putting it out to a vote the way Act wanted was a mistake It's too important for that. Pik N Mix democracy never works.

The other thing I learned politically is it should never have seen the light of day if it wasn’t going all the way.

This goes to the Chris Luxon negotiation skills. It should have been either dead before it started, or it got the full treatment.

What we got was a half-baked, deeply divided mess that ended up achieving nothing.

Even those who argue it started the debate are wrong. Because if it's floated for another day we won't carry on where we left off.

We will have to start all over again.

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