ELLIOT IKILEI: Waitangi Tribunal recommends different citizenship rules for Māori

It’s another day in New Zealand and another attack on equal rights.

The Waitangi Tribunal released its Citizenship Report (Wai 3513), and what they’re proposing should send a chill down the spine of every New Zealander who still believes in one law for all.

This isn’t some minor technical change; it’s a full-blown attempt to rewrite who gets to be a New Zealander, and on what terms.

The report stems from a claim brought by John Ruddock (Ngāpuhi). Ruddock was born in Australia and became a New Zealand citizen by descent through his Māori mother. However, because the Citizenship Act 1977 limits citizenship by descent to just one generation, his children (born in the United States) are not New Zealand citizens.

Rather than accept that this rule applies equally to all New Zealanders, regardless of ethnicity, the Tribunal has found that the Crown breached Treaty “principles” by not creating a separate mechanism for Māori.

During the hearings, Australian-born actress Keisha Castle-Hughes (Ngāti Porou, Tainui, Ngāpuhi) also gave evidence. She spoke of her concern that her children, also born overseas, could lose connection to their whakapapa under New Zealand’s existing citizenship law. Her story was used by the Tribunal as an emotional touchstone, but the reality is that thousands of non-Māori families face the exact same situation.

This area of the law currently treats everyone equally. What the Waitangi Tribunal now wants is for it not to.

The Tribunal’s recommendations go far beyond fixing a perceived technical oversight. They call for the Citizenship Act to be amended to:

• Create a “tikanga pathway” to citizenship, allowing iwi and hapū to assess whakapapa to determine eligibility;

• Extend citizenship by descent only for Māori; and

• Insert a clause requiring the Act to “give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.”

In plain English, that means a separate, race-based pathway to citizenship, determined not by the government, but by iwi.

This is apartheid.

Dictionary definition:

apartheid (noun)

apart·​heid

a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.

Citizenship is the defining thing that unites us as a nation. But under what the Tribunal is proposing, even that would be divided along ethnic lines.

Hobson’s Pledge has warned for years that the Waitangi Tribunal has drifted far beyond its original purpose of resolving historical grievances. It’s now acting as a political engine for constitutional change, rewriting the meaning of democracy, equality, and sovereignty under the guise of “Treaty principles.”

This latest report proves it. When even citizenship, the most fundamental symbol of national unity, is up for ethnic reinterpretation, we have to ask: where does it stop?

If you believe that citizenship should be equal, indivisible, and colour-blind, then now is the time to stand with us. We cannot stay silent while the very definition of being a New Zealander is rewritten by unelected judges and bureaucrats.

That’s why we’ve launched a nationwide petition calling on Parliament to reaffirm the principle of one law for all.

It’s time for New Zealanders to send a clear message: we reject race-based laws, race-based citizenship, and race-based governance. Equality under the law must never be negotiable. If you believe every New Zealander deserves the same rights and responsibilities, no matter their ancestry, then add your name today and stand with us in defence of a united nation.

Sign your name to our petition.

One law for all.

No exceptions.

He iwi tahi tātou / we are one people.

Elliot Ikilei is a Hobson's Pledge Trustee