Treaty Principles Bill: Paul Goldsmith responds to Christopher Finlayson's comments

Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says former MPs sometimes feel they can chip in and tell current ones what to do.

He was commenting on former Treaty Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson's comment that National risks damaging its relationship with Māori because it agreed for the Treaty Principles Bill to be introduced to Parliament.

"The former MPs, some have a habit of coming in and passing judgement on the current people that are in there trying to navigate their way through difficult issues," Goldsmith told Midday Report when asked to respond.

"Each different era has to deal with different situations on the ground and we had a result at the last election which required a coalition arrangement ... There has been a fair amount of discussion in this area and I think that's appropriate. What we're trying to do is do it in a constructive and respectful way."

He said National's basic message around the Treaty Principles Bill was that the party was not supporting it because they believed a referendum was a crude way to handle a sensitive topic.

"Our approach as a coalition government is better to work through these issues issue by issue ... rather than holus bolus in one piece of legislation."

Goldsmith said claims that even talking about te Tiriti o Waitangi too much were "overblown" and there was a balance.

"Just how we sort of navigate our way between honouring Treaty commitments and Treaty settlements and the Treaty process while never losing sight of the basic expectations that people have living in a modern democracy around equality."

He said there were many sensitive issues being discussed with Māori.

"We've got to dial the temperature down a little and recognise that it is possible to talk about these issues without thinking that the end of the world is going to occur."

Parliament was suspended on Thursday after a haka during a debate on the Treaty Principles Bill and Labour MP Willie Jackson was also ejected from Parliament during the debate.

Goldsmith described the opposition's actions in Parliament on Thursday as "stunts" and said it was "quite aggressive at times in the debating chamber".

"I don't think the best approach is to shout down other people but to come up with coherent arguments, and that's what certainly we tried to do."

Asked if - given the prime minister's criticism of the bill - he was embarrassed National had to go along with it, Goldsmith said he was not and he hoped the issues could be discussed in a calm way as it went to select committee.

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