Tino Rangatiratanga — Māori Self-Determination and Land Return

The Policy: Green Party Kaupapa Māori Policy →

The Green Party commits to upholding tino rangatiratanga — the right of whānau, hapū, and iwi to exercise self-determination over their lands, waters, and affairs. Their policy framework treats the reo Māori text of Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a founding constitutional document and pledges to enhance the powers of the Waitangi Tribunal, return land lost through colonisation, and embed Treaty-based governance across health, education, justice, housing, and the environment. The centrepiece land-return proposal, Hoki Whenua Mai, was released in July 2023 and would begin a Tribunal-led inquiry into national land dispossession, establish a dedicated fund for whānau and hapū to reacquire ancestral land, and launch a 10-year review of all Treaty settlements.

The current National-ACT-NZ First coalition government takes a sharply different view. ACT's Treaty Principles Bill — introduced to parliament in November 2024 and defeated in April 2025 — sought to redefine Treaty principles by simple majority, a move the Green Party described as "a disgrace and an attack on Te Tiriti." Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has publicly stated that Māori ceded sovereignty in 1840, a position the Greens, Labour, and Te Pāti Māori all contest, citing the 2014 Waitangi Tribunal report Te Paparahi o te Raki.

What it does:

• Reinstate and fully resource the Waitangi Tribunal to make recommendations — including binding ones — on Crown land, and restore its ability to recommend return of privately owned land as it enters the market
• Remove the 2008 deadline for lodging new Treaty claims and end the "large natural grouping" approach that has sidelined hapū-level rangatiratanga in settlements
• Establish a Hoki Whenua Mai commission of inquiry into land dispossession and a dedicated fund enabling hapū and whānau to reacquire lost whenua outside the formal Treaty settlement process
• Create a legal right of first refusal for mana whenua over raupatu (confiscated) land when it is sold
• Amend the Public Works Act to stop future Māori land seizures and provide a clear return pathway for land previously taken
• End perpetual leases, returning full control of the whenua to Māori landowners
• Implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) across all legislation

Where things stand:

The defining parliamentary battle of the 2023–2025 term has been the Treaty Principles Bill, introduced by ACT leader David Seymour. The bill passed its first reading on 14 November 2024 with only ACT's support in the vote itself — National agreed to take it to select committee but signalled it would not support it beyond that. The Justice Select Committee heard submissions from January 2025; the Waitangi Tribunal issued a report finding the bill breached treaty principles of partnership, active protection, and the article 2 guarantee of rangatiratanga, and recommended it be abandoned. On 10 April 2025 the bill was defeated 112 votes to 11 at second reading — a historically unusual outcome for a government-sponsored bill, with National and NZ First joining the opposition parties to vote it down.

The broader sovereignty debate erupted publicly in August 2024 when PM Luxon stated that Māori ceded sovereignty, drawing a formal open letter of protest from northern iwi Ngāti Hine and Ngāti Manu and a rebuke from Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick, who cited the 2014 Tribunal findings. This exchange illustrated the deep fault line between the governing coalition and the Green-Labour-Māori Party bloc over the meaning of Te Tiriti.

In January 2026, Green MP Hūhana Lyndon introduced a member's bill at Rātana celebrations to entrench the Māori seats, requiring a 75 percent parliamentary supermajority to abolish them rather than the current simple majority. The bill awaits selection from the parliamentary ballot.

What to watch:

• Whether the Hoki Whenua Mai land return policy — or any element of it — is adopted by a future Labour-Green government and what timeline emerges for the Tribunal inquiry and fund
• The fate of Hūhana Lyndon's Māori seats entrenchment member's bill if it is drawn from the ballot, and any further coalition government moves on Māori representation
• Any new coalition government measures affecting the Waitangi Tribunal's resourcing, jurisdiction, or binding-recommendation powers, given the coalition's track record with the Treaty Principles Bill