e Pāti Māori has unveiled one of the most far-reaching constitutional proposals of the 2026 election campaign, seeking to give new legal force to Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations across government. The policy would create an independent commission capable of stopping some Crown decisions, make Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding and begin a $220 million programme aimed at constitutional transformation by 2040.
eLocal Report: Based on reporting by Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira, Political Reporter for RNZ — read the original report here.
Te Pāti Māori is campaigning on a fundamental change to the relationship between Parliament, the Crown and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, proposing legislation that would bind ministers, government departments and Crown agencies to statutory Te Tiriti obligations.
The party's proposal goes considerably further than simply requiring government agencies to consider Treaty principles when developing policy. It would establish an independent Te Tiriti Commission with powers to investigate Crown decisions, require evidence from ministers and government agencies, report breaches directly to Parliament and order remedial action.
Most significantly, according to the policy described by RNZ, the commission could stop executive decisions where it found a serious breach and issue "Te Tiriti Compliance Orders".
If the Crown disagreed with such an order, it would have to apply to the High Court to have it overturned.
A New Independent Commission
Te Pāti Māori says the proposed commission would not itself "define" Te Tiriti. Instead, its role would be to enforce what the party describes as the Crown's minimum statutory obligations arising from it.
The proposed powers include investigating Crown decisions, policy and executive actions for Te Tiriti compliance; requiring information and evidence from ministers, departments and Crown agencies; reporting breaches to Parliament; requiring remedial action; stopping executive decisions where serious breaches are identified; and issuing compliance orders.
The party's policy document, as reported by RNZ, says the legislation would not "constitute, define, replace, limit or domesticate" Te Tiriti.
Instead, it would seek to bind ministers, departments and other Crown agencies to obligations the party says arise from Te Tiriti itself.
That distinction is important because the proposal is not merely for another advisory institution. As described, the commission would have powers capable of directly affecting executive government decisions.
Waitangi Tribunal Recommendations Would Become Binding
Te Pāti Māori is also proposing to amend the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 so that Waitangi Tribunal recommendations would become binding on the Crown.
This would represent another significant change from the present constitutional arrangement, under which most Tribunal recommendations are not binding.
The proposal would therefore potentially increase both the legal and practical influence of the Tribunal over Crown decision-making.
Co-leader Debbie Ngārewa-Packer said the reforms would be a bottom line for Te Pāti Māori in any post-election negotiations.
"Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not an optional extra for Te Pāti Māori," she said, arguing the party did not regard it as something that should be embraced during an election and subsequently abandoned when politically inconvenient.
Waititi: Te Tiriti Is 'Above Every Law'
Co-leader Rāwiri Waititi presented an even broader constitutional argument, telling media that Te Tiriti was "above this House and it is above every law".
He argued that because Te Tiriti pre-dates New Zealand's Parliament, it should not simply be incorporated into ordinary legislation capable of being changed by successive parliamentary majorities.
For Te Pāti Māori, Waititi said, Te Tiriti represents the constitutional framework through which rangatiratanga and kāwanatanga can build the country together.
The party acknowledges the proposals may prove confronting for some New Zealanders but says it wants a national conversation rather than a campaign driven by fear.
Waititi accused other political parties of generating opposition to Te Tiriti while arguing that Te Pāti Māori was offering an opportunity for New Zealanders to debate the country's constitutional future.
$220 Million for Constitutional Transformation
Alongside the proposed commission and changes to the Waitangi Tribunal, Te Pāti Māori is proposing a $220 million Mātike Mai Fund over four years.
The money would support an independent Mātike Mai secretariat, Māori-led constitutional discussions around the country and the beginning of a Māori Constitutional Convention.
That convention would be intended to facilitate formal discussions involving tangata Tiriti, local government and the Crown.
The party is setting 2040 as its target for constitutional transformation.
It is also promising to properly implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) within its first 100 days in government.
Together, those measures indicate that the proposal is intended as a staged constitutional programme rather than a single legislative amendment.
The Parliamentary Hurdle
There is, however, a substantial political obstacle between proposing constitutional entrenchment and achieving it.
As RNZ notes, entrenching a legislative provision requires either 75 percent support in Parliament or majority support at a referendum.
Asked how Te Pāti Māori expected to obtain that level of support, Ngārewa-Packer rejected the assumption that it could not.
She pointed to ACT securing parliamentary consideration of the Treaty Principles Bill despite being a comparatively small party and said much would depend on coalition negotiations.
"We are going to go into these coalition agreements very clear on what is bottom line for us," she said.
Ngārewa-Packer said the party had devised a legislative programme intended to obtain the necessary support but that details would be released later.
Until that programme is published, the pathway from election policy to constitutionally entrenched law remains unclear.
The Cost-of-Living Question
Ngārewa-Packer was also challenged on how constitutional reform would assist Māori facing immediate pressures such as the cost of living.
Her response was that economic disparities could not be separated from the institutions and systems that produced them.
She pointed to disparities including Māori life expectancy and argued that these outcomes reflected systemic failures rather than problems that could be resolved through economic growth alone.
That argument places constitutional reform at the centre of Te Pāti Māori's broader social and economic programme: the party's position is that changing outcomes requires changing the underlying structures of government.
Whether voters accept that diagnosis — and the proposed remedy — is likely to become one of the central questions surrounding the policy.
Does This Affect New Zealand?
Potentially, very significantly.
This proposal is not confined to symbolic recognition of Te Tiriti or another debate about Treaty principles. If implemented in the form described by Te Pāti Māori, it could alter the way executive government, Parliament and existing Treaty institutions interact.
An independent body capable of stopping executive decisions and issuing compliance orders would raise important questions about where governmental authority ultimately resides, what decisions remain within the discretion of elected ministers, what standard determines a breach, and what role the courts would play when government disagrees with the commission.
Making Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding would similarly change the relationship between the Tribunal and the Crown.
The proposed 2040 constitutional transformation process goes further still, potentially opening discussion about the architecture of New Zealand government itself.
There is also a democratic threshold built into at least part of this debate. Entrenchment cannot simply be achieved by Te Pāti Māori acting alone: the proposal would require the necessary parliamentary supermajority or support through a referendum.
For voters, that makes the next stage especially important.
Te Pāti Māori has provided considerable detail about what it wants to change. The outstanding questions concern exactly how the new constitutional arrangements would operate, which powers would remain with elected governments, how conflicts between institutions would be resolved, what provisions would ultimately be entrenched, and whether the public would be asked directly to approve the resulting constitutional settlement.
Those details will determine whether this remains an election negotiating position or becomes the beginning of one of the most consequential constitutional debates New Zealand has undertaken in decades.
Source
Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira, Political Reporter, RNZ: “Te Pāti Māori vows major constitutional reform by making Te Tiriti binding for Crown” — read the original RNZ report.
Independent reporting. Original context. Credited sources.