Members of Te Pati Māori perform a haka in front of Act MPs during the first reading of The Treaty Principles bill in the House at Parliament. Photo / Adam Pearse
Members of Te Pati Māori perform a haka in front of Act MPs during the first reading of The Treaty Principles bill in the House at Parliament. Photo / Adam Pearse
Some agree, some disagree. The issue has been discussed and debated around water coolers and coffee machines and dinner tables since it was first mooted last year.
After setting a deadline of midnight Tuesday, January 7 for online submissions and a 5pm the next day for hard copy submissions, the deadline was extended following a computer glitch that saw hundreds unable to log their submissions online. That new deadline ends today at 1pm.
The timing of the submissions was always going to be tight anyway.
This bill’s first reading was pushed through early, on November 7 – ahead of the planned hīkoi to Wellington the following week. This sparked outrage from Māori and non-Māori for the sneaky way it was introduced.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who was out of the country at the time, and NZ First leader Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters have said repeatedly they will not support the legislation past its first reading. That should be enough to stop the bill in its tracks and give the community some certainty but politics and politicians have a knack of flip-flopping and back-tracking.
Count in the holidays and people going away, and it’s safe to say the timing was not ideal.
The purpose of Seymour’s bill, he says, is to set out the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in legislation, and require, where relevant, those principles to be used when interpreting legislation.
Sounds simple but to use a well-worn term from the previous Labour Government, it’s a bit more “complex”.
The bill has drawn criticism from Labour, the Greens, Te Pāti Māori, as well as Māori leaders and bodies including the Waitangi Tribunal, with some government ministers claiming the tribunal is overstepping its brief anyway.
A number of legal critics argue the bill undermines Māori rights and disrupts established interpretations of the Treaty, and have called the Government to abandon it.
Act leader David Seymour. Photo / Alyse Wright
But Seymour counters that the current principles have distorted the original intent of the Treaty and created different rights for some New Zealanders, resulting in Māori having different political and legal rights and privileges compared with non-Māori.
The Treaty affirms particular rights and responsibilities for Māori as Māori to protect and preserve their lands, forests, waters and other treasures for future generations.
According to Te Pāti Māori, the Justice Select Committee has received 313,000 submissions online and 160,000 lodged on January 7 with 31,000 of those in hard copy form. The previous highest number of submissions was 107,000 for the Conversion Therapy Bill.
So there’s a lot of interest shown by New Zealanders and some would say this is democracy in action.
