Reuters
New Zealand’s parliament yesterday began a debate on a bill aimed at reinterpreting the country’s founding agreement as hundreds of protesters continued their march toward the capital.
The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the country’s coalition government, last week unveiled the bill, which aims to define the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
First signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs, it lays down how the two parties agreed to govern.
A protester holds a Tino Rangatiratanga flag of the Maori people outside Parliament in Wellington yesterday.
Photo: AP
The interpretation of clauses in the document still guides legislation and policy.
The proposed bill passed its first reading yesterday and is to be sent to a select committee.
New Zealand Associate Minister of Justice David Seymour said that Maori are being given different rights than non-indigenous citizens, who lose out because of policies specifically designed for the uplift of Maori.
Seymour said people who oppose the bill want to “stir up” fear and division.
“My mission is to empower every person,” he said.
The legislation is seen by many Maori and others as undermining the rights of the country’s indigenous people, who make up about 20 percent of the population of 5.3 million.
Hundreds have set out on a nine-day march, or hikoi, from New Zealand’s north to Wellington in protest over the legislation, staging rallies in towns and cities as they move south.
Introduced by ACT, which won 8.6 percent of the vote in last year’s election, the bill is expected to fail.
Coalition partners the National Party and New Zealand First are only supporting the legislation through the first of three readings as part of the coalition agreement.
Both parties have said they will not support it to become legislation.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said his government’s top focus would be on the economy, and improving law and order.
“You do not go negate, with a single stroke of a pen, 184 years of debate and discussion, with a bill that I think is very simplistic,” Luxon told reporters before leaving for Peru to attend the APEC summit.
