Wednesday, 12 February 2025 12:25

Ruth reckons

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: Ruth Richardson, architect of the 1991 ‘Mother of all Budgets’ and the economic reforms dubbed ‘Ruthanasia’, added her two cents to the Treaty Principles Bill with a submission that essentially says it’s time to “have the sovereign authority” define the principles of the Treaty “by design” rather than continue to let them be defined “by accident” by unaccountable institutions like activists in the Courts, the Waitangi Tribunal and officialdom.

She says Parliament should define them, and she rejects assertions by some [e.g. NZ On Air’s media slush fund] that sovereignty was never ceded to the Crown, saying Article 1 clearly shows it was.

The Bill will be voted down, but its true value lies in letting smarter cookies than your old mate thrash it out in a considered, reasoned fashion, aptly demonstrated by ‘Ruth’s Reckons’.

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