January 27, 2025
What is the best title given to any New Zealand legislation? My money is on the 1877 Education Act – 'An Act to make Further Provision for the Education of the People of New Zealand' – the People of New Zealand. So as early as the 1870s there's the commitment to a united people who belong to, and benefit from, the nation 'New Zealand'. Nearly 150 years later that commitment is under serious threat from those who would replace liberal democracy with tribal sovereignty and, by doing so, create a racialised society – apartheid.
Consider the two words 'liberal', 'democracy' and their connection. Both give us something that none of our ancestors living in kinship groups had.
'Democracy' gives us a system of parliamentary sovereignty, of law, of regulation. It recognises that our common humanity justifies equal rights. Those rights belong to the individual citizen, not to the group.
The word 'liberal' gives us the freedom to be different – as individuals and in voluntary associations based on a range of shared interests –culture, heritage, language, sport, music, religion, politics, and so on.
This is what makes liberal democracy remarkable. As citizens we have the same political and legal rights. As members of civil society we are free to be different. This is an enormously important point. It is the combination of rights, responsibilities and freedom within democracy's governance and laws that makes the modern world vibrant and prosperous.
That's why I support the Treaty Principles Bill – because it provides a coherent and succinct statement capturing what liberal democracy is – something we should all know, especially the Members of Parliament who represent us, the People of New Zealand.
First world nations need liberal democracy's creative tension – an invigorating tension between rights and responsibilities, and between having the same rights and having the freedom to be different.
The Bill is the symbolic link to the hope found in both the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and in the 1852 Constitution Act. Nineteenth century New Zealanders, especially those who had been slaves, decimated by war, of low genealogical birth status, or from impoverished backgrounds – they put their faith in a peaceful and prosperous future for their descendants. In the 21st century we can strengthen that faith for our descendants by agreeing to the principles in this Bill.
New Zealand's future may be that of a prosperous first-world liberal democratic nation or a third-world, retribalised state. A first world tribal nation is a contradiction in terms. It is not possible. There can be no prosperity without individual equality and freedom. There can be no social equality without prosperity.
We are at a crossroads. The value of the Bill is that it not only forces us to confront this fact but allows us to do so within the parliamentary select committee process rather than through cultural posturing, intimidation, perhaps even violence. The very existence of the Bill is liberal democracy in action.
Prof Elizabeth Rata is a curriculum expert at the University of Auckland.
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