Treaty of Waitangi politics intrude ever more conspicuously into many areas of our society and our public life. Even New Zealand’s left-leaning mainstream media have picked up on the University of Auckland compulsory indoctrination-rich Waipapa Taumata Rau course [1], and Janet Dickson’s challenge to the Real Estate Authority [2] over their compulsion on estate agents to undertake a compulsory professional development module called Te Kākano (The Seed). Another example in tertiary education concerns efforts to decolonise the Massey University BA degree [3] This document supports the notion that society must remain “cognisant of structural ongoing contamination of white/Western hegemony.” It supports the idea that decolonisation does not exist without a framework that centres and privileges Indigenous life, community, and epistemology.
Such examples barely lift the lid on the extent of Treaty indoctrination across the public service, the education and research sectors, businesses and professional regulatory bodies. For example, the Midwifery Council’s Scope of Practice [4], the cultural safety requirements imposed on practitioners by the New Zealand Psychologists Board [5] and the Treaty-centric competency standards for New Zealand pharmacists [6], while perhaps well-intentioned, place undue emphasis on the needs of one ethnic and cultural group. A very heavy focus on one population is evident in the charters, mission statements and constitutions of many organisations in New Zealand.
Surely, organisations based around modern communications technology should see their businesses as serving the entire community, without the need for critical social justice agendas in their operations. However, it seems that even the Internet cannot escape the current identity politics.
The Internet was developed using late 20th Century information technology and advanced high speed communications network technology. Such technology is universally available to the entire world and, by its very nature, is not exclusive to any one ethnicity. In fact, it is one of the most democratising of any technology – of the world’s 8.20bn population, 5.56bn individuals use the Internet, and the average personal daily usage is over six hours! [7]
The following is quoted from the InternetNZ website [8]:
InternetNZ holds the delegation for the .nz country code top level domain. It operates the regional registry for New Zealand (the .nz Register). The .nz Register is a single register, shared registry system that manages the registration of .nz domain names and associated data.
The following principles guide the management of .nz:
.nz should be secure and trusted: .nz infrastructure must be dependable and secure, and .nz be trusted
.nz should be open and accessible: everybody should be able to observe, participate, innovate and enjoy the benefits of .nz
.nz should serve and benefit New Zealand and reflect and be responsive to our diverse social, cultural and ethnic environment
.nz should support te reo Māori me ōna tikanga and participation in .nz by Māori
.nz should enable New Zealand to grow and develop: it should help people, businesses and organisations connect, create, innovate and grow.
The InternetNZ Council meeting of 21st March 2025 has on its agenda the consideration of its Strategic Plan 2025-2026. This includes the overarching Strategic Goal of “Centring Te Tiriti o Waitangi” as a Strategic Priority, and ethno-centric preferences that dominate five Strategic Goals and 13 out of 25 sub-goals. These goals are as follows:
Goal 1:
We promote policies and practices that are inclusive of Māori perspectives, to achieve access and equity in .nz domain, and global internet governance.
We work with the Māori community to ensure Māori voices are actively involved in shaping digital, internet policies and decisions.
Work with and support Māori decision-making for the protection and use of te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori within .nz rules and the Internet.
We advocate inclusion and support the priorities of Māori and rangatahi Māori in Internet governance platforms.
Goal 3:
Implement Ngā Pae: Pae Kākano | Horizon 1.
We have a clear Tiriti vision, we understand what it means to InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa Group to be Tiriti-centric.
Centre, embed Te Tiriti through our strategies, policies, practices, people capability to achieve digital equity, digital inclusion and access for Māori.
We are building confidence, knowledge and capability in te ao Māori, whilst ensuring a Te Tiriti o Waitangi perspective guides everything we do.
Foster meaningful engagement and build stronger relationships with Māori organisations, iwi, hapū on kaupapa that are mutually beneficial.
Goal 4:
InternetNZ Group has a clear identity, centered in our Te Tiriti vision - we are clear on our story and who we are. Our people and values are strong drivers for our identity as InternetNZ Group.
Increase Māori engagement and awareness of InternetNZ Group and membership opportunities.
Goal 5:
We have a sustainable, equitable community funding model into the future (including partnerships with other philanthropic, community, Iwi, hapū, Māori national bodies, organisations).
Investment priorities are guided by clear objectives that promote equity, align with priorities identified by Māori in the sector.
It is perfectly reasonable that effective engagement with Māori, as with all stakeholders, should be part of the mission of InternetNZ. However, by declaring that it will be Te Tiriti-centric, InternetNZ, like our universities, is implicitly taking a political stance, when as a user-focused organisation it should remain entirely neutral. In the authors’ view, the extensive ethnocentric priority and preference expressed in these InternetNZ Strategic Goals distort and impede the fundamental concept and principles of the multi-stakeholder model of the internet – open access for all. The stated goals stand at odds with the principles of Internet governance as identified, for example, by the global Internet Society that leads the multi-stakeholder approach to the global management of the Internet. These standards are:
(i) Inclusiveness and transparency.
(ii) Collective responsibility.
(iii) Effective decision-making and implementation
(iv) Collaboration through distributed and interoperable governance.
In the authors’ opinion, the InternetNZ’s 2025-2026 Strategic Goals statement:
(i) Fails the Internet Society’s standard of inclusiveness and downgrades all other groups in New Zealand society by focusing on and preferring the input and the outcomes of one particular group.
(ii) Fails the Internet Society’s standard of collective responsibility. In fact, it places disproportionate responsibility on second-tier groups of New Zealanders to meet the special needs of one particular ethnic and cultural group. These needs are defined by self-selected members of that group, relying on the application of the Treaty of Waitangi to justify distinctive and separate considerations in a 21st century medium. The internet was designed for globally open access for all rather than any particular social, economic, religious, cultural, national, age, or racial grouping.
(iii) Fails the Internet Society’s standard of collaboration through distributed and interoperable governance. The Strategic Goals, as written, limit and restrict interoperability (particularly internationally) by a focus on one domestic ethnic group. Such specialisation has been proven, both in policy and research, to constrain effective collaboration across national and international boundaries.
As a critical facility for Internet access for New Zealanders, InternetNZ needs simply to recommit to the fundamental principles of a globally interconnected world, that demonstrate no preference for any particular ethnic, religious, social, economic, national, cultural or racial grouping. InternetNZ should prepare a balanced set of strategic goals and sub-goals that reflect these open-access-for-all principles and standards.
All New Zealanders should support respectful and ethical behaviour on the Internet. However, we must avoid even the remote possibility that access to a .nz domain name could be frustrated because the user may not support one or more of the strategic goals outlined above, or New Zealanders’ rights and responsibilities being differentiated by race.
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John Raine is an Emeritus Professor of Engineering and has worked in Deputy Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor roles in three New Zealand Universities. He was formerly Board Chair of the Research and Education Advanced Network of New Zealand (REANNZ).
David Lillis is a retired researcher who holds degrees in physics and mathematics, worked as a statistician in education, in research evaluation for the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, and for several years as an academic manager and lecturer.
References
1. Waipapa Taumata Rau Course, The University of Auckland, 2025 https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/study-options/undergraduate-study-options/waipapa-taumata-rau-course.html
2. Ric Stevens “Janet Dickson case: Requirement to make Māori tikanga course mandatory for real estate agents ruled valid by High Court” NZ Gerlad, 4th February 2025 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/janet-dickson-case-requirement-to-make-maori-tikanga-course-mandatory-for-real-estate-agents-ruled-valid-by-high-court/T7HJI6672RBWBPDEV5PJ6U347Q/
3. Massey University (2025). 'It's complicated': reflections on teaching citizenship in Aotearoa New Zealand https://mro.massey.ac.nz/items/f5bc8793-6081-48fe-ae25-4417616947d9
4. Midwifery Council, Midwifery Scope of Practice 20th March 2024 https://midwiferycouncil.health.nz/common/Uploaded%20files/SCOPE%201%20March%202024.pdf
5. New Zealand Psychologists Board, Guidelines for Cultural Safety, June 2009 https://psychologistsboard.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/GUIDELINES-FOR-CULTURAL-SAFETY-130710.pdf
6. Competence Standards for Aotearoa New Zealand Pharmacists, April 2024. https://pharmacycouncil.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Competence-Standards-for-Aotearoa-New-Zealand-Pharmacists.pdf
7. Digital 2025: Global Overview Report - The Essential Guide to the World's Connected Behaviours. January 2025 https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2025/02/digital-2025/.
InternetNZ Rules https://internetnz.nz/nz-domains/nz-rules/nz-rules-2024/
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