![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/David-Seymour_2.jpg\")
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Seymour took to X with a rapid\u2011fire list of Acts where Treaty references will be removed entirely \u2014 including the Education and Training Act, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, the Smokefree Environments Act, and the Crown Pastoral Land Act. He also highlighted a second group of laws, such as the Resource Management Act and Conservation Act, where Treaty clauses will undergo further review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a major step toward clearer laws, greater consistency, and equal treatment under the law,\u201d Seymour posted. But he also argued the changes don\u2019t go far enough, saying that even requiring agencies to \u201ctake into account\u201d<\/em> Treaty principles \u201cleaves room for activist interpretation.\u201d The social\u2011media victory lap came minutes after Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith released the official announcement, confirming Cabinet has agreed to amend 19 Acts following a review promised in the National\u2013NZ First coalition agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goldsmith said the goal is to bring consistency to decades of varying Treaty\u2011principles wording \u2014 from \u201chonour\u201d to \u201chave regard to\u201d to \u201cgive effect to\u201d \u2014 and to ensure the law is predictable and clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Government has agreed to amend two references to be more specific, repeal seven references, and specify that no higher standard than \u2018take into account\u2019 should be used across ten Acts,\u201d Goldsmith said. Goldsmith stressed that full and final Treaty settlements are excluded from the review, and that iwi consultation and a full select committee process will follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The announcement again highlights the internal dynamics of the three\u2011party Government: National delivering the formal policy, NZ First shaping the scope, and ACT publicly pushing for deeper reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seymour\u2019s message was clear \u2014 today\u2019s changes are progress, but in his view, the job is far from finished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com ACT leader David Seymour is claiming credit for what he calls a \u201cmajor step\u201d toward clearer and more consistent Treaty law, after the Government confirmed it will amend or repeal Treaty\u2011principles clauses in 19 pieces of legislation. Seymour took to X with a rapid\u2011fire list of Acts where Treaty references will be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[1076,113,471],"coauthors":[709],"class_list":{"0":"post-13084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-david-seymour","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-treaty-of-waitangi"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Treaty.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13089,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13084\/revisions\/13089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13084"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cIn a free and equal society, the meaning of constitutional principles should be decided by Parliament and understood by all New Zealanders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Paul-Goldsmith.avif\")
Minister of Justice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
He also confirmed future legislation should reference both the Treaty of Waitangi<\/em> and te Tiriti o Waitangi<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n