It will be considered by the Justice Select Committee, including public submissions, over the next six months.
Shane Te Pou (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a commentator, blogger and former Labour Party activist.
OPINION
How cowardly was it of Christopher Luxon to schedule Parliament’s debate on the Treaty Principles Bill for when he was going to be absent on yet another internationaltrip?
This is a Government bill, proposing the most fundamental changes to our country’s constitutional framework in a generation, cynically designed to drive division between Māori and Pākehā – and the Prime Minister was not there to state his case in Parliament.
Luxon is right that this bill is divisive and completely inappropriate. Yet he signed the coalition agreement with Act. He chairs the Cabinet that reviewed the legislation and decided when to take it to Parliament. He made the decisions that have caused so much fear and hurt.
Meanwhile, David Seymour is as happy as a pig in muck. Every excuse he can find, he’s hurling attacks at the hīkoi and opponents of his bill. He’s revelling in the division, because that’s exactly what the bill is all about: rarking up division so Act can grab some more votes off National.
If anyone should be in favour of respecting Te Tiriti, it’s the Act Party. After all, they’re meant to be all about respecting contracts, and what is Te Tiriti but the founding contract of our nation?
A deal was made between the British Crown and iwi. Act should be calling for Te Tiriti to be enforced – not just the principles, which, in truth, are a watered-down recognition of Te Tiriti’s importance – but actual enforcement of the agreed terms. Act should be focusing its efforts on fighting against the fact Treaty settlements only amount to a few per cent of what was taken and insisting on full restitution.
Instead, Luxon has allowed Seymour to bring forward a bill that doesn’t just rewrite the principles but, in fact, purports to rewrite the plain meaning of Te Tiriti itself, removing the guarantees that were given to iwi about possession of their lands and taonga.
If the Act Party was true to its founding principles it would absolutely not be pushing the idea that one party to a deal can rewrite it without agreement from the other parties.
As Tai Ahu and Natalie Coates, co-tumuaki of the Māori Law Society, wrote to the Prime Minister: “It is an act of bad faith and deep dishonour that the Crown is seeking to unilaterally amend how the Treaty is interpreted in all laws without the free, prior and informed consent of Māori.”
Seymour is not trying to “fix” Te Tiriti. He is ramping up divisions to make a grab for National supporters. He’s having the time of his life, playing the victim, painting Māori and Pākehā who oppose his attack on Te Tiriti as aggressors.
The fact is, as astute observers have been predicting since the coalition agreements were first unveiled, Luxon has been outplayed by Seymour.
The hīkoi and the select committee hearings will be the political focus over the next few months, overshadowing National’s agenda (what is National’s agenda now, other than cancelling hospitals and failing to buy ferries?).
Luxon will again and again have to defend his weak-kneed position. He will constantly face questions on how he is going to put to bed this constitutional monstrosity he unleashed upon us.
'Prime Minister Christopher Luxon lacked the courage to kill the bill when he should have,' Shane Te Pou says. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Will he get rid of the bill by voting it down when it comes back from select committee, or will it hang around on the Order Paper, like a bad smell, unresolved until the election?
Will he backtrack and become the Prime Minister who tore up Te Tiriti and broke the bond that underlies the Government’s right to govern? Or will he vote down the bill, and risk losing a sizable number of his party’s base to Act?
In another miscalculation, Luxon’s mishandling of the bill has given the opposition parties and ordinary New Zealanders an issue to unite around.
Luxon is inadvertently teaching a whole new generation the power of protest and the strength that ordinary people have when they stand together for what’s right.
Even people who don’t know much about Te Tiriti and its place in modern Aotearoa New Zealand can’t understand what Luxon is doing. Why is the Prime Minister backing a law that he himself has trashed, which is being used to attack Māori?
Luxon lacked the courage to kill the bill when he should have.
He lacked the courage to appear in Parliament to explain why his party voted for it on Thursday.
If he doesn’t find some courage soon, this attack on Aotearoa New Zealand’s foundations will become an indelible stain on his reputation.
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