Luxon said he spoke to Seymour to make clear the relationship between the United Nations and New Zealand is conducted via Peters and not other ministers.
Luxon said the letter to the Government from the Special Rapporteur was a “waste of time” and did not disagree with the content of Seymour’s response.
“Winston Peters is our Minister of Foreign Affairs, he engages and handles our relationship with the United Nations,” Luxon said.
“He will have a comprehensive reply in due course,” Luxon said.
Luxon said his talk with Seymour had “made it clear that [he] expects Winston Peters to be the one who engages with the UN”.
Luxon would not divulge what he had said to Seymour, only that the Government now had “clarity about who is responsible for what”.
He said it was simply a “process point” that the person who replies to UN communications is Peters.
Seymour said he wrote the letter as Minister for Regulation “in response to ridiculous statements about the Regulatory Standards Bill”.
“I stand by the contents of the letter and my colleagues share the same concerns,” he said.
“However it turns out I was too efficient in my correspondence. One response should come from the Minister for Foreign Affairs on behalf of all Ministers,” Seymour said.
“Winston and I have fixed the problem. I’m going to withdraw my letter so that the Government can send one response, I expect that letter to make the same points,” he said.
In the original letter, Barume said he was “particularly concerned” with the Regulatory Standards Bill, which he said “excludes Māori traditions [tikanga] and fails to uphold the principles of partnership, active protection, and self-protection guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi”.
“I am preoccupied that the bill threatens Māori-specific laws that address structural inequalities in matters relating to, for example, land, language and environmental stewardship, and because it seems to impose a monocultural legal standard, marginalising Māori as legal subjects without respecting their own governance frameworks”.
Seymour hit back, writing in his capacity as the Minister for Regulation, saying he found the letter “presumptive, condescending, and wholly misplaced”.
“As an indigenous New Zealander myself, I am deeply aggrieved by your audacity in presuming to speak on my behalf and that of my fellow Māori regarding legislation that aims solely at ensuring clarity, consistency, and accountability in regulatory processes.”
Seymour said Barume’s characterisation of the Regulatory Standards Bill’s approach to tikanga was “not only incorrect but offensive” because the bill “neither undermines nor overrides” current Treaty settlements or ”statutory protections afforded to Māori".
