'Beyond saddened': A year of law changes impacting Māori

Major law changes implemented in 2025 have seen a decrease in public sector obligations and targeted initiatives that support Māori rights, development and wellbeing, according to critics.

The areas affected include social services, marine and coastal rights and education. The changes compound last year’s wave of legislation that saw the disestablishment of the Māori health authority, reinstating polls on Māori wards, and challenges to environmental and customary rights through fast-track proposals.

The coalition Government said the changes were variously about making children safer, cutting red tape and improving educational success for Māori. But critics talked of sadness and insult.

The key changes:

In April, the Oranga Tamariki Amendment Act 2025 repealed section 7AA that required the agency to ensure policies and practices reduce disparities, give regard to the mana and whakapapa of the child, and develop strategic relationships with iwi and Māori organisations.

Act MP and Minister for Children Karen Chhour said removing Section 7AA “reinforces the need to put the safety of the child first”.

She told RNZ at the time that iwi, whānau and hapū should still be considered, “but they shouldn’t be the first consideration”.

However, a regulatory impact statement from Oranga Tamariki in March said: “There is no empirical evidence to support the notion that section 7AA has driven practice decisions that have led to changing care arrangements.”

In 2019, section 7AA was inserted into the Act in response to concerns that child protection services were failing young Māori and their whānau, highlighted by reports of harrowing baby uplifts by Oranga Tamariki.

The Marine and Coastal Area (MACA) (Takutai Moana) Amendment Bill implemented a tougher legal test for recognition of customary rights for Māori. The test applies retrospectively to July 2024 which, going against advice from their own officials, overturned marine title rulings awarded to Māori across 280km of coastline.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith said: “It’s not a desirable situation, obviously we thought long and hard about this, it’s very unusual for the government to overturn court decisions in this way, but we think it’s significant and necessary.”

Far North Ngātiwai leader Aperahama Edwards said they were “beyond saddened” and “outraged” at the idea of revisiting the “horrific” process.

“We've been through the Waitangi Tribunal, a kaupapa inquiry, the High Court, we've advanced MACA claims in our tribal territory – not by our own desire to, but because we had to. Some of our elders who participated in those hearing spaces have had since passed away, and to hear… that the amendments being proposed will be enacted in retrospect – all of that work for nothing.”

According to Regulations Minister David Seymour, the Regulatory Standards Amendment Act’s aim is to “ensure regulatory decisions are based on principles of good law-making and economic efficiency”.

“In a nutshell: If red tape is holding us back, because politicians find regulating politically rewarding, then we need to make regulating less rewarding for politicians with more sunlight on their activities,” Seymour said in a statement at the time.

Critics of this amendment bill dubbed it the Treaty Principles Bill “2.0”.

Law academic Dr Carwyn Jones said the Regulatory Standards Bill will provide a means to weaken Treaty protections and remove the legal meaning and effects of Te Tiriti from the law, “which is what the Treaty Principles Bill’s all about”.

“So I think I see the Regulatory Standards Bill really is just finishing off the work that was started by the Treaty Principles Bill, [that was] ultimately rejected.”

The Education and Training Amendment Act (No. 2) cuts the requirement for school boards to “give effect” to Te Tiriti o Waitangi which includes ensuring plans, policies and curriculum reflected local iwi history, tikanga and mātauranga.

It drew a significant amount of criticism which led many schools to reaffirm their commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi by signing up to have their names appear on a public list called Te Rārangi Rangatira.

Heidi Hayward, principal of Dunedin North Intermediate School, told 1News her school board felt both “insulted and patronised”.

“We don't really see Te Tiriti as a compliance task as a board and I think, arguably, as a nation we've actually moved beyond that.”

In response to the backlash from schools, Education Minister Erica Stanford said her message was for achievement to improve, “especially for our tamariki Māori”.

She said: “If those schools are doing all of the things that we're asking of them in Section 127, including offering te reo, being culturally responsive, and ensuring that tamariki Māori have equal outcomes, and then if they wish to honour the Treaty and uphold the Treaty above and beyond that then they are absolutely welcome to do that, and that's what they would like to do.”

She added: “We are raising Māori achievement in reading, writing and mathematics - that is upholding the Treaty and that's what I expect schools to do.”

Stephen Lethbridge, principal of Auckland’s Pt Chevalier School-Rangi-mata-rau, said in November Te Tiriti was never meant to be optional.

“It’s our foundational document and removing it from the Education Act just means that we can take it or leave it, and that’s the wrong message to be sending our Māori whānau.”

He added that the school was always focused on raising academic achievement.

A petition with almost 24,000 signatures was delivered to Parliament on December 8, calling on the Government to reinstate the requirement for school boards to implement Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It was received by the Minister.