Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975

The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, given royal assent on October 10, 1975 and introduced by Matiu Rata, gave New Zealand's founding Treaty of Waitangi legal recognition for the first time and created the Waitangi Tribunal to hear claims about the Treaty's practical application. As first enacted, the Tribunal could investigate only alleged breaches occurring after 1975 and could merely recommend remedies to the government rather than enforce them, so it could not initially examine the nineteenth century land confiscations of the New Zealand Wars. A 1985 amendment extended the Tribunal's jurisdiction back to 1840, the year the Treaty was signed, considerably widening its inquiries and making the Treaty a live part of New Zealand law rather than a historical document.