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In the 1970s, the third Labour Government amended legislation which overtly discriminated against Maori, and established the Waitangi Tribunal, which was allowed to consider only injustices after 1975.

The fourth Labour Government was the first government to consider what the Treaty might mean in the future by incorporating requirements to respect the Treaty into some legislation - notably the State Owned Enterprises and Resource Management Acts. It also enabled the Tribunal to consider Treaty violations from 1840.

In this era, the concept of "Treaty principles" began to supercede previous references to "partnership". 

The term "Treaty principles" is used very loosely in a wide variety of contexts:

  The Waitangi Tribunal is required by the 1975 Act to address the principles of the Treaty. Their definition of principles may change as they consider new cases.

  The 1988 Royal Commission on Social Policy popularised a definition of Treaty principles summarized as the three Ps - participation, partnership and protection

  Particular laws passed by Parliament also refer to Treaty principles; for example, the 1986 State Owned Enterprises Act

  Because the Treaty is in some legislation passed by Parliament, the courts consider principles when interpreting legislative references to it. These continue to be developed by the courts, case by case. As Justice McKay noted in the 1992 Broadcasting case: "It is the principles of the Treaty which are to be applied, not the literal words. The English and Maori texts in the first schedule to the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 are not translations the one of the other, and the differences between the texts and shades of meaning are less important than the spirit"1

  Government policy includes references to principles, the strongest of which were produced by the fourth Labour Government in 1989. The National Government then developed its own set between 1990 and 1999. The current Labour Government has new ones as well.

The Crown alone has generated these different sets of principles. None have been adopted by hapu or iwi. The principles are constantly changing with court and Waitangi Tribunal decisions and in response to public opinion, and they are not the Treaty itself.

The current Labour Government is continuing the preceding National Government's policy of financial settlements for past injustices, but is now reluctant to include the Treaty in legislation.

1 Te Puni Kokiri, The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi as Expressed by the Courts and the Waitangi Tribunal

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