22 Aug 2012

Treaty bicultural focus seen as too exclusive

2:00 pm on 22 August 2012

The panel leading a constitutional review has been told a bicultural focus on the Treaty of Waitangi won't be fair to Pacific and migrant communities.

The warning came on the opening day of a forum held by the Human Rights Commission in Auckland where Dr Ranginui Walker said the Treaty of Waitangi is top of the panel's list.

But James Liu of Victoria University said the Treaty has led to a kind of federalism, with the redistribution of resources to Maori as a nation within a nation.

Professor Liu said that if that is to be entrenched in a constitution, then why couldn't there be an Auckland Supercity Federal Zone, in which multiculturalism rules.

The Auckland Council's Pacific advisory panel chairperson, Uesifili Unasa, said the review must consider the special status of Pacific peoples in New Zealand.

He said Niueans, Cook Islanders and Tokelauans are New Zealand citizens by right and Samoans have a constitutional standing through their Treaty of Friendship.