Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said an Act Party email calling for donations to back a mainstream media discussion over its Treaty of Waitangi Principles referendum shows not even David Seymour and his party members have faith in this being accepted by the majority of New Zealanders.
Yesterday, Act sent an email to its supporters seeking financial support for its Treaty of Waitangi Principles referendum.
Seymour told the Herald that $30,000 had already been raised by mum and dad supporters of Act for the cause.
“We had one person give $1k but most donations have been $20-$25 from your normal average New Zealanders,” Seymour said.
“Our opponents are desperate not to have an open debate about what the Treaty means. They don’t want to be forced to say they think the Treaty requires different treatment of different citizens based on your ancestry.”
Seymour said the Treaty, in Act’s view, gives self-determination and gives the same rights and duties to all New Zealanders, no matter what their racial background may be. He said the party is very eager to have that debate.
“As soon as we have that debate, the overwhelming number of people - Māori and Pākeha are on our side, but we need to get the debate out there and in favour of an open debate.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“We raised over $30k in the first 12 hours of that email going out and we are very grateful for people’s support. These are small donations, hundreds of people donating. Once they have read at Treaty.nz, they say they want more people to read it.”
“I want them to come and have an open discussion,” he said. “Do they believe the Treaty means different New Zealanders have different rights based on ancestry?”
“If they believe it gives different people different rights, where in the world is an example where this operates that way successfully.”
Ngarewa-Packer said the email showed Act does not have the support it thought it did to make Treaty of Waitangi Principle changes.
“What this shows is the Act Party has no confidence in their coalition party agreement or its ministers,” Ngarewa-Packer said.
“This shows just how desperate they are. They have front row seats in the Government but really have no confidence in this referendum agreement or their own ministers.
“Act must be desperate to resort to this.”
Joseph Los’e is an award winning journalist and joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira.
