Treaty Principles Bill: PM Christopher Luxon responds after open ...

“The question, I believe, did that mean all New Zealanders as per 1840, or all New Zealanders in perpetuity, whoever may live here. That’s been very contentious.

“I’m proposing explicit mention of the rights that iwi and hapū had in 1840 to allay the concerns that somehow we are taking away the rights of Māori.”

The Waitangi Tribunal has said the bill is unfair, discriminatory and needed to be abandoned while a group of more than 400 church leaders on Monday released an open letter calling for MPs to do everything in their power to stop the bill from going to select committee and to “work towards the ongoing restoration of the Tiriti relationship”.

Seymour said the pushback by the churches was undemocratic, and not the first time churches had tried to interfere in democracy.

“This isn’t the first time the church has tried to prevent the people from having their say on a policy of mine, the first time being the End of Life Choice Act,” Seymour told the Herald.

The letter outlined the group’s concerns and how it will drive more divisiveness within Aotearoa. Signatories included all three Anglican archbishops; the Catholic Archbishop and a Catholic Cardinal, the Methodist Church president and the Salvation Army commissioner.

Responding to the letter, Luxon said people were “entitled to their views” and he needed to honour National’s coalition agreement with Act. Both of Act’s coalition partners, National and NZ First, say they will not support the bill past the first reading.

“I have a coalition agreement commitment, I honour those commitments,” Luxon said.

“We have a coalition agreement, very clear, went to the election, we have an MMP system, people voted, those are the cards they gave us.”

Luxon and Seymour were among the thousands of people who attended the recent tangi of Kīngi Tūheitia in Tūrangawaewae Marae. Kotahitanga (unity) was frequently mentioned in the speeches, including by Luxon.

Asked how having the bill discussed at the Cabinet on his first day back at Parliament since then married with that, Luxon said: “I do believe in kotahitanga, I do believe in unity, but that doesn’t mean we are going to agree on the best pathway to get there.

“There will be very many differences in opinion in how to do that and that’s okay. That’s normal. That’s good in a democracy for that to happen. But what I’m talking about is the vision of actually New Zealand realising its potential and being a better country.”

Luxon reiterated his position on the bill, saying “Act would have liked to have had a full public referendum after the select committee process and law going through Parliament - that’s not going to happen - so we’ve got a compromise here.”

Seymour told Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan on Monday that “the Government and the parties had agreed to the broad outline of the bill. It now goes off to Parliament’s drafters who will take some time to write the exact wording.”

On Luxon’s position of not supporting the bill beyond the first reading, Seymour said: “You know me, I’m forever hopeful, that you just never know how circumstances might change.”

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said National should “stand by their principles and simply stop the bill proceeding any further”.

”This is going to be a divisive debate. Christopher Luxon has said it’s going to be a divisive debate. He should show some leadership. Just stop it right now, jettison the bill, and let’s focus on bringing the country together rather than creating division.”

He said the process to date had been “shambolic”.

”It absolutely defies belief that we’ve got this far down the track with this particular debate and the Prime Minister is still saying that he hasn’t seen a draft bill.”

Seymour pushed back on Hipkins’ comments, saying the policies of the previous Labour Government such as Three Waters or the Māori Health Authority were divisive.

“That was literally divisive because the explicit intent of the policy was to have different positions in public life based on which side of a treaty partnership you were on.”

In August, the Waitangi Tribunal released a scathing report after considering the bill under urgency. The tribunal said the bill was unfair, discriminatory and needed to be abandoned.

The 189-page interim report says the Treaty Principles Bill was “a solution to a problem that does not exist”, saying Māori did not want this policy and “in fact many have been strongly opposed to it from the beginning”.

“Despite the constitutional significance of defining the Treaty principles in legislation and the importance of this to Māori, the Crown agreed to pursue the policy without any engagement or discussion with Māori.

“We have found that the Treaty Principles Bill policy is unfair, discriminatory, and inconsistent with the principles of partnership and reciprocity, active protection, good government, equity, and redress, and contrary to the article 2 guarantee of rangatiratanga.”

In a statement, Hobson’s Pledge said while church leaders were welcome to “hold and speak their views” the open letter sought “to shut down debate, discussion, and dialogue”.

“Their call to ignore democratic parliamentary processes should be of deep concern to all New Zealanders. Using the same language of others who seek to cancel and de-platform, they talk of social cohesion and potential harm from people talking about ideas.

“These church leaders appear to have little faith in New Zealanders’ ability to think, discuss, and debate issues of importance to them.”

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.