56679 (2025). Teanau Tuiono to the Minister of Justice

56679 (2025). Teanau Tuiono to the Minister of Justice: Does the Minister share the concerns of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) that 'Recent initiatives to reinterpret the Treaty and its established principles, efforts to review or replace legislative references to Treaty principles, and various proposals that may weaken mechanisms for shared decision-making and co-governance between the Crown and Māori, largely undertaken without ensuring the free, prior, and informed consent or meaningful engagement of Māori' and if so why and if not why not?

Hon Paul Goldsmith: As the Minister of Justice, I led the New Zealand delegation to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on 25 and 26 November 2025. The Member is quoting various statements from the “Concluding observations on the twenty-third and twenty-fourth periodic reports of New Zealand” which was issued by CERD on 5 December 2025. The Government is considering the concluding observations and will respond in due course.