"Exposing the Government’s Ideological Assault on Te Tiriti in Aotearoa’s Schools" - 14 November 2025
He Taiaha Tutukitaki
Ka tū ngā kura o Aotearoa hei hāpai i te Tiriti.
Nearly 200 schools have defiantly published public statements reaffirming their commitment to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in November 2025, refusing to abandon their moral and educational obligations to Māori tamariki despite the National-ACT-NZ First coalition’s sudden move to strip Treaty requirements from the Education and Training Act. The government’s decision—introduced without consultation, passed within a week, and enacted with stunning ideological clarity—exposes a coordinated neoliberal and assimilationist agenda designed to erase Māori from education law, sever the Crown’s accountability to its founding constitutional partner, and weaponise school governance as a tool for cultural erasure and epistemic injustice. This is not education policy: it is an act of deliberate harm wrapped in the language of “academic excellence.” What follows is the anatomy of betrayal, the networks powering it, and the evidence that schools themselves—the frontline defenders of our tamariki—are refusing to comply.[1][2]
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The Sleight of Hand: Hidden Connections in the Coalition’s Treaty Assault
Education Minister Erica Stanford’s sudden announcement to remove section 127(2)(e) of the Education and Training Act—the clause requiring school boards to “give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi”—was not a policy reconsideration: it was a manufactured crisis designed to normalise the abnormal. Stanford’s biography reveals a postgraduate education in Political Science with a minor in Māori Studies; she was thus positioned to understand what she was dismantling, making the act not negligent but deliberately calculated.[3][4][5]
The hidden network emerges here: David Seymour, ACT Party leader and Associate Minister of Education, had attempted to remove the Treaty clause entirely in June 2025 and was explicitly overruled by cabinet colleagues, though he stated at the time that the ACT Party would want removal—describing this as “simply political”. Six months later, Stanford delivered what Seymour wanted: complete removal. This is not coincidence. This is coalition choreography, with Seymour’s libertarian ideology—rooted in property rights, individualism, and market primacy over collective identity—executing through Stanford’s hands.[6][7][8][9]
Cui bono? Who benefits? The ACT Party does. Libertarian ideology abhors collective rights and state recognition of historical injustice; it treats the Crown’s Treaty obligations as illegitimate interference with individual freedom. Seymour has explicitly stated his belief that “freedom under the law” is “incompatible” with legal recognition of Māori partnership and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination). The Treaty removal in schools is the first domino: follow the falling sequence. In May 2024, the government repealed section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act—the clause requiring state care agencies to honour Te Tiriti, reducing Māori children’s cultural protection. In parallel, the government attempted to push the Treaty Principles Bill, which would legally redefine Te Tiriti away from Māori rights and towards assimilationist universalism. The schools move is thread in a deliberate tapestry: dismantling Te Tiriti from the one institution every child in Aotearoa passes through.[4][10][11][9][12][13][14][6]
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The Mauri-Depleting Machine: Education Policy as Cultural Erasure
To understand this attack through a tikanga framework, we must distinguish between mauri-enhancing (restoring whakapapa, honouring tohunga, strengthening collective identity) and mauri-depleting (commodifying tapu, denying holistic education, enforcing assimilation) policy. Stanford’s policy is unmistakably mauri-depleting.[15]
The facts: Under the existing Education and Training Act 2020, schools are required to ensure that “plans, policies, and local curriculum reflect local tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and te ao Māori”; “take all reasonable steps to make instruction available in tikanga Māori and te reo Māori”; and achieve “equitable outcomes for Māori students”. These are not bureaucratic abstractions—they operationalise the Crown’s Treaty duty to Māori as educational partners. Removing this requirement does not “clarify” school priorities; it severs the legal link between school governance and equitable outcomes.[4][10][16][17]
- The rhetorical smoke screen: Stanford argued that schools should focus on “practical things that make a difference”—attendance, reading, writing, maths—implying that honouring Te Tiriti is not practical. This is false on its face. Research shows Māori students in culturally supportive environments significantly outperform their peers in mainstream schools, with higher literacy, NCEA achievement, and university progression. The Tertiary Education Commission itself documented that integrating cultural responsiveness into whole-of-system change drives equity outcomes. Te Kōhanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Māori consistently demonstrate that te reo fluency and tikanga integration enhance academic achievement.[10][18][17][15]
Yet Stanford’s position reflects neoliberal market logic: atomise the individual student, strip collective identity markers, isolate “basics,” and treat culture as ornament rather than foundation. This framework treats Māori tamariki as generic units to be processed through a literacy-numeracy machine, not as rangatahi (young people) with whakapapa, whenua, and mana to be honoured.[19]
NCEA Level 3 Attainment by Ethnicity (2024) - Persistent equity gaps show Māori and Pacific students lagging significantly behind peers
Protesters waving Māori and other flags during the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti in front of New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington.
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The Quantified Harm: Māori Student Disparities and the Treaty’s Protective Role
The government’s claim that removing Te Tiriti protections will not harm Māori students is not just false: it contradicts its own data. In 2024, Māori students achieved NCEA Level 3 attainment at 58.5%, compared to 72.8% for Asian students and 69.6% for European students—a 12-14 percentage point equity gap. In school attendance (Term 2 2023), only 33% of Māori and Pasifika students attended regularly (over 90% of half-days), compared to 50% of Pākehā and 59% of Asian students. For decile 1 schools (highest poverty), the pass rate on the pilot NCEA reading and literacy standards was just 2%.[20][21][22]
These disparities are not random: they are the residue of 180 years of colonisation, land confiscation, language suppression, and institutional racism. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended in 2023 that New Zealand “strengthen efforts to promote and foster the Māori language, cultural identity and history in education” precisely because data showed systemic exclusion. The current Education Act’s Treaty clause was introduced in 2020 to operationalise this UN recommendation and Crown duty—to create legal space where schools must actively work with whanau to integrate tikanga, mātauranga, and cultural identity into curricula as pathways to equitable outcomes.[4][23][24]
Removing this clause in the presence of persistent 12-14 percentage point achievement gaps is not “clarity”: it is deliberate harm.
School Attendance Rates by Demographic (Term 2 2023) - Māori and Pasifika students face chronic absence barriers
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The Funding Story: Systematic Defunding of Māori Education
The narrative obscures itself further through simultaneous funding cuts. Since 2024, the coalition government has cut over $1 billion from Māori-specific initiatives. In education specifically: Te Ahu o te Reo Māori (teacher te reo funding) lost $30 million; Māori education programmes were disestablished to save $72 million (including Resource Teachers Māori and the Wharekura Expert Teachers programme); the Aotearoa Reorua (Bilingual Towns) programme was scrapped for $1.6 million; Climate Resilience for Māori funding cut by 33%. Whai Kainga Whai Oranga, the Māori housing programme, was scrapped entirely—$624 million removed.[25][26][27]
This is not reallocation: it is systematic defunding of the structural supports that translate Treaty obligation into lived reality for Māori whānau.[26][27]
Coalition Government Cuts to Māori Programmes (2024-2025) - Over $730 million diverted from Māori-specific initiatives
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The Schools Revolt: 189 Schools (and Rising) Say No
Here is where tikanga reasserts itself. School boards themselves—the Crown entities tasked with implementing education policy—have rejected the government’s move with unusual public defiance. By November 12, 2025, the School Boards Association reported 189 schools had informed the Minister they had written formal statements reaffirming commitment to Te Tiriti. This number was expected to rise as school boards met in subsequent weeks.[28]
- Who are these schools? Dyer Street School in Hutt Valley: “We wish to make it clear that this decision is not a political statement, rather, it is a decision grounded in our sense of educational and civic responsibility”. Queen’s High School in Dunedin: “Te Tiriti o Waitangi continues to inform our governance and decision-making…our commitment is not a compliance exercise, it is a moral imperative that enriches the education we offer and ensures all students, especially Māori students, see themselves and their culture valued and reflected in the school environment”. Putāruru Primary School: “While government policy may shift, our strategic direction will not. We will not be swayed by divisive politics. Strong communities are built through partnership—not by rolling back commitments to Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.[1]
These are not radical statements. They are articulations of kaitiakitanga (stewardship), whanaungatanga (relationship), and aroha (compassion)—the tikanga foundations of education. School boards are directly signalling that the government’s move violates their own sense of professional ethics and educational responsibility.[1]
Matt Weldon-Smith, board member at Dyer Street School, told RNZ: “I know it’s a bit of a political football, but it’s not really a political issue to us. It feels more like an ethical, educational one. So, that honouring Te Tiriti ensures every child feels valued, respected and represented in their learning”. Kate Kaddell, board member at Queen’s High School, noted that community response was overwhelmingly positive: “1600 engagements, 912 loves, 745 thumbs-up, 14 caring signs, and one sadness emoji”—a snapshot showing public agreement with the boards’ stance.[28]
The schools are refusing to comply. This is rangatiratanga in action: exercising authority over their own kura despite government decree.
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The Coalition of Kaiako and Iwi: 88 Iwi, 95,000 Teachers, 13,275 Petition Signatures
The schools’ defiance is supported by a unified coalition representing the education and Māori sectors. The National Iwi Chairs Forum (NICF), supported by the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa, New Zealand Principals’ Federation, New Zealand Post Primary Teachers’ Association Te Wehengarua, Te Akatea New Zealand Māori Principals Association, Secondary Principals Association of New Zealand, Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa (School Boards Association), Ngā Kura ā Iwi o Aotearoa, and Te Rūnanga Nui o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa launched a petition called “Protect Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Education”.[4][29]
These organisations collectively represent 88 iwi and over 95,000 teachers, principals, schools, and kura.[29][4]
The petition reached 13,275 signatures by late Thursday, November 13, 2025, and was scheduled to remain open until November 25 before formal presentation to Parliament. Rāhui Papa, Chair of NICF’s Pou Tangata, articulated the unified position: “Removing Te Tiriti from the one place every child in Aotearoa passes through—our education system—deprives our tamariki of the opportunity to learn about identity, belonging, and partnership in a culturally responsive environment, and we will not sit idly by while this happens”.[28][4][29]
The NICF had engaged formally with the government for over a year on the proposed Education and Training Act changes. When the government pivoted to complete Treaty removal, it did so after public consultation closed—publishing the amendments less than 24 hours before Parliament voted, with no public consultation on this substantive change.[10][30][7][4]
This is not democratic governance. This is executive capture by coalition ideology.
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The ACT Party Ideology: Libertarianism as Epistemic Erasure
To fully understand this assault, we must name the ideological motor: ACT Party libertarianism, in which collective rights, state recognition of historical injustice, and cultural identity protection are categorised as illegitimate restrictions on individual freedom.[8][9][31]
David Seymour has explicitly stated: “My beliefs behind this bill and my belief in freedom under the law is a long-held and sincere belief. What we’ve witnessed in recent decades, as the courts and the Waitangi Tribunal have sought to define the principles of the treaty, is incompatible with freedom under the law, with a free society where each of us have equal rights”. This framing rejects the fundamental premise of Te Tiriti: a partnership between two peoples, not a universal collective of atomised individuals.[9]
Seymour’s libertarian lens treats Māori tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) as a threat to “liberal democracy and equality before the law”. He has specifically stated his discomfort with the fact that Ngāi Tahu have been guaranteed rangatiratanga over 90% of the South Island through Treaty settlements, calling this outcome “a shame, but that’s where they’re up to”—revealing that his ideological commitment to individual equality overrides respect for actual Treaty partnerships.[6]
In education, this libertarian ideology manifests as support for charter schools (50 new schools to be funded with $153 million), which prioritise market-based autonomy over community accountability, and which are being introduced specifically because ACT’s ideological base demands “minimal government interference in private citizens’ lives”. Charter schools in previous iterations served as vehicles for privatisation, reduced oversight, and the explicit removal of Māori content—precisely what Seymour intends.[31]
This is not education reform. It is neoliberal restructuring of the state apparatus to remove collective protections and individualise inequality.
Photograph of the original handwritten document of Te Tiriti o Waitangi showing historical script and wax seals.
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The Rhetorical Framing: Dog-Whistle Language and the Blame-the-Victim Narrative
Minister Stanford deployed carefully calibrated language to legitimise the move:
“Clarity” vs. “nebulous concepts”: She argued that the Treaty clause was too vague for school boards to implement, implying it was burdensome rather than transformative. Yet school boards manage dozens of complex statutory obligations (finance, child safety, accessibility); calling only the Treaty obligation “nebulous” is selective.[32]“Academic achievement” vs. “cultural distraction”: Finance Minister Nicola Willis stated: “Your Treaty of Waitangi clause may have been a virtue signal that made you feel good, but it made not an iota of difference for the kids whose learning we’re focused on”. This pits Treaty obligations against learning, a false binary designed to erase the research showing cultural responsiveness drives achievement.[15][32]“Extremists” and “parental choice”: Seymour framed opposition to his policies as “extremism,” while positioning his assault on te reo and tikanga as “self-determination”—each group getting to choose whether Māori culture is taught. This inverts power: it treats the majority population’s choice to exclude Māori culture as equal to Māori’s right to see themselves reflected in state institutions.[33][16]
These are dog-whistles: coded language that uses neutral-sounding terms (”clarity,” “achievement,” “choice”) to mask racist policy intent. Principals Federation president Leanne Otene directly named this: “without a clear obligation, schools will be pressured by extremists to delete Māori from the curriculum in the school programmes”. Without the Treaty clause, there is no legal protection against this pressure.[10][33]
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The Institutional Context: The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti and Waning Democratic Legitimacy
The government’s move occurs within a context of escalating, popular, indigenous-led resistance. In November 2024, the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti (March for the Treaty) mobilised over 42,000 people who marched to Parliament to oppose the Treaty Principles Bill. The hīkoi traversed the entire length of Aotearoa, with local groups joining from every region, performing waiata, planting trees at sacred sites like Ihumātao and Takaparawhau (Bastion Point), and reaffirming kotahitanga (unity).[34][35][36]
The government’s response: ignore it. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon refused to meet with hīkoi organisers, dismissing them as “Te Pāti Māori affiliated”—as if indigenous political participation delegitimises indigenous mobilisation.[35]
Exactly one year later, the government enacted policies that hīkoi participants had explicitly opposed: stripping Te Tiriti from schools, repealing section 7AA of Oranga Tamariki, and maintaining its commitment to the Treaty Principles Bill. This is not merely tone-deaf; it is institutional contempt for indigenous democratic expression.[35]
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The UN Warning: Constitutional Racism and “Profoundly Aggravated” Breaches
In October 2025, the Aotearoa Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law (Te Wai Ariki) submitted a shadow report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, documenting that the coalition government is “actively and profoundly aggravating New Zealand’s constitutionally racist foundation in a way we have not seen for at least half a century”. The report identifies breaches of international conventions and notes that the government “can do so with impunity, given the lack of constitutional protections of Māori rights”.[37][24]
Te Hunga Rōia Māori (Māori Law Society) described the government’s legislative approach as a “scorched-earth approach” to law and policy that has “systematically targeted Māori-specific policies, institutions and rights across health, justice, education, and the environment”. The Waitangi Tribunal itself, in its report on the Oranga Tamariki 7AA repeal, found “clear breaches of the Treaty article 2 guarantee to Māori of tino rangatiratanga” and warned of “significant risk of actual harm to vulnerable tamariki and the risk of erosion of trust amongst Māori whānau and communities”.[13][37]
This is not hyperbole. These are formal institutional findings of Treaty breach and constitutional violation.
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The Path Forward: Rangatiratanga Reasserting
The schools’ defiance offers a pathway. When 189 schools (and rising) publicly declare their commitment to Te Tiriti despite government decree, they are exercising rangatiratanga—self-determination over their own kura. They are refusing the premise that the Crown’s removal of Treaty language strips their moral obligation to their Māori tamariki.
The coalition of iwi and educators—88 iwi, 95,000 teachers—is similarly asserting collective authority: we will defend Te Tiriti in education whether or not the government does. The petition is a formal assertion of mana: we count, we have voice, we will be heard by Parliament.[4][29]
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What is required now:
Schools must hold the line: Continue public statements reaffirming Treaty commitment. Institutionalise tikanga-based governance and curriculum regardless of legislative change. Document how removing Treaty protection would compromise educational outcomes.Iwi and educators must escalate: The petition must reach Parliament, formal select committee submissions must be lodged, and iwi must invoke their Treaty settlement rights to protect educational partnership agreements with schools in their rohe (territory).Data must be weaponised: The 12-14 percentage point NCEA gap, the 33% attendance rate for Māori and Pasifika students, the $730+ million in Māori funding cuts—this data must be relentlessly circulated as evidence of deliberate harm.International pressure must be mobilised: The UN review in November 2025 provides a formal channel for international scrutiny of the government’s Treaty breaches. This pressure, channelled through Māori networks, can isolate the government diplomatically.Constitutional transformation must be demanded: Te Wai Ariki’s recommendation stands: incremental reform has failed; constitutional protection of Māori rights is now essential.[37][24]
Taiaha Against the Machine
The government’s removal of Te Tiriti from school education law is not an isolated policy shift. It is a coordinated, ideologically driven assault on Māori rangatiratanga, the Crown-Māori partnership, and the legal recognition of historical injustice in the one institution every child in Aotearoa passes through. It is powered by ACT Party libertarianism, executed through a coalition comfortable with erosion of Māori rights, justified through dog-whistle language that pits “academic achievement” against “cultural distraction,” and enacted with contempt for indigenous democratic expression.
Yet the schools are refusing. Kaiako and board members are saying no. Iwi are saying no. Ninety-five thousand educators and 88 iwi are saying no. A petition carrying 13,275 signatures of people unwilling to watch Te Tiriti be erased from their children’s education is being carried to Parliament.
This is rangatiratanga reasserting—not through compliance with government policy, but through defiance, through mobilisation, through the reassertion of mana and collective authority over our own tamariki, our own kura, our own education future.
The taiaha (ancestral weapon) of Tū and Tāne, sharpened by research, verified sources, and the mauri of our people, continues to cut. Ka tū ngā kura. Ka tū ngā iwi. Ka tū tātou. The schools stand. The iwi stand. We stand.
Ka ora tonu mātou—we will live on.
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Ivor Jones The Māori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right Leadings The Green Lantern Corp Of Aotearoa
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Sources Cited
(1) Radio New Zealand. “Some schools defy government move on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.” RNZ News & Politics, November 13, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/578765/some-schools-defy-government-move-on-te-tiriti-o-waitangi
(2) New Zealand Herald. “Govt to remove requirement for school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, but will still make clear they should seek equitable outcomes for Māori students.” NZ Herald, November 2, 2025.
(3) Radio New Zealand. “Nearly 200 schools write to Education Minister Erica Stanford about Treaty obligations.” RNZ News & Politics, November 12, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/578760/nearly-200-schools-write-to-education-minister-erica-stanford
(4) Radio New Zealand. “Iwi petition against government’s removal of Treaty of Waitangi requirement in schools.” RNZ News & Politics, November 10, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/578627/iwi-petition-against-governments-removal-of-treaty-of-waitangi-requirement-in-schools
(5) Radio New Zealand. “Iwi petition against government’s removal of Treaty of Waitangi requirement in schools.” RNZ News & Politics, November 10, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/578627/iwi-petition-against-governments-removal-of-treaty-of-waitangi-requirement-in-schools
(6) Radio New Zealand. “Teachers shocked by government decision to remove Treaty of Waitangi clause from education law.” RNZ News & Education, November 3, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/education/578338/teachers-shocked-by-government-decision-to-remove-treaty-of-waitangi-clause-from-education-law
(7) New Zealand Herald. “Erica Stanford is stripping our curriculum of its identity.” NZ Herald, November 4, 2025.
(8) Radio New Zealand. “Watch: Select Committee hearings on Treaty Principles Bill.” RNZ News & Politics, January 29, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/550827/watch-select-committee-hearings-on-treaty-principles-bill
(9) Te Ao News. “School boards no longer required to give effect to Te Tiriti, Minister confirms.” Te Ao News, November 10, 2025. https://teaonews.co.nz/news/school-boards-no-longer-required-to-give-effect-to-te-tiriti-minister-confirms/
(10) PPTA. “National education coalition unites against changes to Education and Training Act.” PPTA website, November 10, 2025. https://ppta.org.nz/news/national-education-coalition-unites-against-changes-to-education-and-training-act/
(11) Radio New Zealand. “Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti: A year on from one of Aotearoa’s largest protest movements.” RNZ News & Politics, November 10, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/579130/hikoi-mo-te-tiriti-a-year-on-from-one-of-aotearoas-largest-protest-movement
(12) Radio New Zealand. “Schools only legally obliged to teach te reo Māori if parents ask for it under law change.” RNZ News & Education, November 5, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/education/578489/schools-only-legally-obliged-to-teach-te-reo-maori-if-parents-ask-for-it-under-law-change
(13) Radio New Zealand. “National’s Nicola Willis defends govt removing Treaty of Waitangi responsibilities from school boards.” RNZ News & Politics, November 4, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/578382/nationals-nicola-willis-defends-govt-removing-treaty-of-waitangi-responsibilities-from-school-boards
(14) 1News. “Shock as Govt looks to remove schools’ Treaty of Waitangi obligations.” 1News TVNZ, November 3, 2025. https://1news.co.nz/news/politics/shock-as-govt-looks-to-remove-schools-treaty-of-waitangi-obligations-18826/
(15) Te Ao News. “School boards no longer required to give effect to Te Tiriti, Minister confirms.” Te Ao News, November 10, 2025. https://teaonews.co.nz/news/school-boards-no-longer-required-to-give-effect-to-te-tiriti-minister-confirms/
(16) PPTA. “National education coalition unites against changes to Education and Training Act.” PPTA website, November 10, 2025. https://ppta.org.nz/news/national-education-coalition-unites-against-changes-to-education-and-training-act/
(17) NZEI Te Riu Roa. “Removal of clause requiring school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.” NZEI statement, November 3, 2025. https://nzeiteriuroa.org.nz/removal-of-clause-requiring-school-boards-to-give-effect-to-te-tiriti-o-waitangi/
(18) Radio New Zealand. “Treaty Principles Bill: David Seymour’s acknowledgement shows inconsistency in his argument.” RNZ News & Politics, November 26, 2024. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/535944/treaty-principles-bill-david-seymour-s-acknowledgement-shows-inconsistency-in-his-argument
(19) Radio New Zealand. “National Party leader Christopher Luxon announces Teaching the Basics Brilliantly plan.” RNZ News & Politics, March 22, 2023. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/468101/national-leader-unveils-plan-to-improve-literacy-and-numeracy-in-primary-school-curriculum
(20) NZ Herald. “Te Ahu o te Reo Māori: Inside the report used to justify $30m funding cuts.” NZ Herald, September 30, 2024.
(21) Radio New Zealand. “Focus on Politics.” RNZ News & Politics, November 6, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/
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(23) Radio New Zealand. “ACT Party tried to get Treaty of Waitangi clause removed from amended education legislation.” RNZ News & Politics, June 30, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/559913/act-party-tried-to-get-treaty-of-waitangi-clause-removed-from-amended-education-legislation
(24) National Party. “Replacing NCEA to transform secondary education.” Beehive website, August 4, 2025. https://national.org.nz/education/
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(26) Melanie Nelson. “Decoding Seymour’s presentation on the Libertarian Treaty Principles Bill.” Substack, March 22, 2025.
(27) Melanie Nelson. “Decoding Seymour’s presentation on the Libertarian Treaty Principles Bill.” Substack, March 22, 2025.
(28) Radio New Zealand. “Nearly 200 schools write to Education Minister Erica Stanford about Treaty obligations.” RNZ News & Politics, November 12, 2025.
(29) Radio New Zealand. “Commission pans attempts to close Māori, Pacific student achievement gaps.” RNZ News & Education, November 28, 2021. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/education/456405/commission-pans-attempts-to-close-maori-pacific-education-achievement-gaps
(30) Radio New Zealand. “Education Minister Erica Stanford stands by contentious draft school curriculum for Years 0-10.” RNZ News & Politics, October 28, 2025. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/576976/education-minister-erica-stanford-stands-by-draft-school-curriculum-for-years-0-10
(31) Humanium. “Educational inequities for marginalized students in New Zealand.” Humanium website, January 20, 2025. https://humanium.org/en/new-zealand-educational-inequities/
(32) Humanium. “Educational inequities for marginalized students in New Zealand.” Humanium website, January 20, 2025.
(33) New Zealand Government Beehive. “Hon Erica Stanford.” Beehive website. https://beehive.govt.nz/minister/hon-erica-stanford
(34) NZ City. “Removing Treaty responsibility from school boards undoes decades of progress.” NZ City, November 10, 2025.
https://home.nzcity.co.nz/
(35) NZ Herald. “School daze: Sweeping changes planned for NZ’s education system.” NZ Herald, May 3, 2024. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/school-daze-sweeping-changes-planned-for-nzs-education-system/LHJWKVKWJ2HVTCCNZ6QDXGHFE/
(36) Radio New Zealand. “NZ Budget 2024: the coalition needs a circuit breaker.” RNZ News & Business, May 28, 2024. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/508929/nz-budget-2024-the-coalition-needs-a-circuit-breaker
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