TRUST INSIGHTS
Based on the Nov 2023 and Dec 2024 research by Horizon and commissioned by the Human Rights Commission:

• No organisation is trusted by more than 50% of the population to provide accurate information on the Treaty/Te Tiriti.
• Overall, trust scores increased 15% on average in 2024. This goes against the trend of declining trust in institutions in previous years, as shown by Stats NZ’s research.

 

• The National Library of New Zealand is trusted by 44% of voters.
• The Waitangi Tribunal is up from 36% to 41%, and the Human Rights Commission from 25% to 29%, but the majority of New Zealanders still don’t trust either organisation on this issue.
• Books, websites, podcasts come in as the third most trusted on 33%.
• Educators are trusted by only 1/4 (25%).
• National Iwi Chairs Forum and NGO’s by only 1/5 (19% and 18%)
• English-language News Media outlets are trusted by only 13% of Kiwis. Double the 6% score in 2023, but still very low % with 87% not trusting them.
• Māori-language news media scored slightly higher with 16%, but that’s still 84% who don’t trust them as well.
• Government Departments at 15%, MPs at 10%, and Political parties at 8%, and are trusted less than Friends or family at 17% (up from 11%),  similar to Advocacy/activist groups or organisations at 9%, and only slightly more than social media at 7%. Again, these are all very low trust scores.

OTHER INSIGHTS
The focus of this fact is on trust since that is a critical foundation for any discussion or debate and most of the information is coming from politicians and media, but be sure to check out the link below for other questions. There are a wealth of insights across the 26 pages.  These include:

• 90%+ supported questions about respecting and upholding human rights and all Kiwis feeling like they belong here.
• ~80% want less politics and better discussion and debate, but that is arguably stating the obvious.
• 72% feel informed (up from 58%) about the Treaty/Te Tiriti, which most will agree is a good thing. < 35-year-olds are the least informed.
• 70%+ want to honour the Treaty (72%) and have it in our laws (71%), but these questions didn’t ask about the interpretation or application of it.
• Young people are far less likely to trust the National Library, Waitangi Tribunal, and far more likely to trust friends or family, Māori news media, and social media especially.
• Asian/Indian Kiwis are far less likely to trust National Library, Waitangi Tribunal, HRC, and far more likely to trust friends/family, Govt departments, and social media.
• Māori/Pasifika Kiwis are far more likely to trust the Waitangi Tribunal, HRC, Iwi Chairs, friends and family, and Māori language news media. Māori do not have trust in Govt departments on treaty matters.
• The 2023 report showed that 35% felt Māori had NOT ceded sovereignty, and 28% felt they had. This question was not repeated in 2024.
• Two other omitted questions from 2023 showed that 58% felt it was important for the majority to decide how the Treaty is honoured (22% felt it was not important), and conversely, 53% felt it was not important for only Māori to decide (23% felt this was important).
• One of the least supported statements with 57% agreement and 17% disagreement was ‘The spirit and intent of the Treaty/Te Tiriti can help guide us in how we move forward as a country from here.” This perhaps reflects the social division in New Zealand right now.
• Many other new questions were introduced in the 2024 research, including the Waitangi Tribunal’s controversial report about Māori not ceding sovereignty, several questions about ‘self-determination’, multiple political statements, and remedies for past injustices. 

KEY QUESTIONS

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HAVE YOUR SAY

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FULL DATA ANALYSIS
Please contact us if you would like the full data set and research.

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ADDITIONAL NOTES:

• We have decided to focus on the trust question since it is:
  • A key foundation for any discussion or debate.
  • And most of our information comes from politicians and media.
• The report only had rounded numbers. Decimal figures were not published.
• We shortened the wording display of two options, as shown below, to fit them into the graph better horizontally:
  • Books, websites, podcasts, etc that cover New Zealand history
  • English-language news media (either specific media or the media generally)
• We reordered ‘Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission’ to Human Rights Commission – Te Kāhui Tika Tangata’ since:
  • The Human Rights Commission is understood by more readers.
  • The Government has announced that Government Departments must display their English name first.
  • 96% of New Zealanders do not speak te reo Māori well/fluently.
• We have ordered the graph from the most to least trusted source, except for Other which we’ve left at the bottom. The 2024 report breaks down these Other responses, if you are interested.
• For the 2024 graph colours, we have just used the default Excel colours.
• For the 2023 graph colours, we chose:
  • Black as New Zealand’s national colour.
  • Red to highlight the political and news media results since we felt they were a key insight. Red is a common colour used in Maoridom, so we felt it was a good choice for a second contrasting colour.
• Horizon Research’s exact fieldwork dates are in the links below. The sample sizes are shown in the graph. Only voters 18+ were surveyed.
• This report also asked many other questions. See SOURCE below for the link.
• All numbers are provisional and subject to revision.

Thank you to the Factors who helped pull this together.

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SOURCE:

2024 Research Report = https://tikatangata.org.nz/cms/assets/Documents/Te-Tiriti-o-Waitangi-/Horizon-Research-Human-rights-and-Te-TiritiTreaty-Survey-Report-Jan-2025-FINAL.pdf
2023 Research Report = https://tikatangata.org.nz/cms/assets/Documents/Te-Tiriti-o-Waitangi-/Horizon-Research-Te-Tiriti-o-Waitangi-results-for-Te-Kahui-Tika-Tangata.pdf

Data published by The Human Rights Commission
(c) Crown Copyright
Licensed for use under the creative commons attribution licence (BY) 4.0

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Did we make a mistake, or have you got smarter data?  Let us know.

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