ACT calls for referendum on co-governance

One News reports:

The issue of Māori co-governance is set to be a big talking point at the next election with ACT campaigning for a referendum on the issue.

Revealed exclusively to 1News, party leader David Seymour says it would be a bottom line if forming a Government with National.

“Over the last 40 years a combination of the Waitangi Tribunal, the courts, and successive Labour and National governments have quietly but progressively changed the definition of what the Treaty means,” Seymour said.

I certainly think that major constitutional changes such as the push for co-governance at the highest levels of government should be a matter decided by the public, not done by politicians with no mandate.

ACT proposes that the next government passes legislation defining the principles of the Treaty, then ask the people to vote on it becoming law.

The Treaty Principles Act would say:

1. All citizens of New Zealand have the same political rights and duties
2. All political authority comes from the people by democratic means, including universal suffrage, and regular and free elections with a secret ballot
3. New Zealand is a multi-ethnic liberal democracy where discrimination based on ethnicity is illegal.

The second one is key. Political authority does not come from the Treaty of Waitangi, or the US Declaration of Independence or other founding documents. They are important documents but political authority comes from the people via democratic means. This is what separates out democratic and free countries from other countries.