Māori health and urban leaders are delivering a clear warning to Parliament: weakening Te Tiriti o Waitangi in legislation will lead directly to worse health outcomes, persistent inequities, and preventable loss of life for whānau.

Submitting to Parliament’s Justice Committee on behalf of Te Kōhao Health and the National Urban Māori Authority (NUMA), Lady Tureiti Moxon called for the immediate rejection of three proposed pieces of legislation:

• Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Standardisation) Amendment Bill
• (Strength of Legislative Obligations) Amendment Bill
• (Repeals) Amendment Bill

The proposed changes would alter statutory language across legislation – including changing the requirement in section 6 of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 from a commitment to “give effect to” the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi to merely “recognise and respect” them.

“The consequences of weakening Te Tiriti are not theoretical,” Lady Tureiti said. “We have seen in real life what happens when Māori health and the Crown’s obligations to Māori are treated as a lower priority. Whānau suffer, inequities persist, and lives are lost that could have been saved.”

The human cost of deprioritising Te Tiriti
The submission highlights two concrete historical decisions illustrating the human cost when Crown Treaty obligations are downgraded:

  1. The 2006 Ministry of Health Directive: DHBs were instructed not to refer to Te Tiriti in new policies, action plans, or contracts. In the following years, Māori health providers faced severe funding cuts, lost contracts, and were forced into sub-contractor roles under mainstream providers less equipped to meet Māori community needs.
  2. The March 2025 Bowel Cancer Screening Decision: Cabinet redirected funding originally earmarked to begin screening Māori and Pacific peoples 10 years earlier—a decision designed to address higher mortality and younger onset rates. Modeling cited in the submission indicates this decision alone will result in an estimated 273 premature, preventable deaths among Māori and Pacific whānau.

“Māori develop bowel cancer younger and die from it at higher rates. A fair health system recognises those differences and responds to them. Treating everyone the same, when people face unequal risks and unequal outcomes, does not deliver equity,” Lady Tureiti said.

A Pattern of Constitutional Regression
The submission notes that official Ministry of Justice advice flagged that the proposed Bills failed to meet responsible regulation standards, finding no clear benefits to lowering existing Treaty standards. Furthermore, the Waitangi Tribunal has described the legislative moves as a “significant constitutional regression.”

Lady Tureiti highlighted that these health-related changes follow a broader, concerning pattern of policy decisions affecting Māori representation, te reo Māori, education, child wellbeing, and customary rights.

“The last 50 years have seen hard-won steps towards recognising Te Tiriti and addressing the damage caused by generations of Crown decisions,” Lady Tureiti said. “We are now seeing those protections stripped away, often despite evidence of harm and warnings from the Waitangi Tribunal.”

Te Kōhao Health and NUMA are formally requesting that the Justice Committee recommend:
• All three Bills be stopped immediately.
• Existing Treaty provisions and their current legislative strength be retained.
• The Crown engage in genuine, meaningful partnership with Māori before considering any future legislative amendments.

“Te Tiriti is not an optional extra. It is fundamental to how the Crown must work with Māori,” Lady Tureiti concluded. “We should be moving forward together, not going backwards at the expense of Māori health and wellbeing.”