This article was first published by RNZ
It’s D-Day for the government’s Treaty Principles Bill, with the legislation up for its first reading after Question Time on Thursday afternoon.
Calls for the National Party to abandon its coaltion promise to see it through this first leg of the legislative process have fallen flat.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Wednesday told reporters he still planned on honouring National’s agreement with ACT.
“We support the bill to first reading and as I’ve said right from the beginning, we don’t support it beyond that and we’ll be voting it down.”
The legislation is before Parliament earlier than expected, with a large protest hīkoi still making its way down the North Island.
It hasn’t fazed the bill’s proponent ACT leader David Seymour who said he believed those opposing the bill just needed to read it.
“They say kill the bill, I say read the bill because once you see it, ask yourself what’s wrong with the government having the right to govern, the government having an obligation to uphold all people’s rights and all people’s rights being equal before the law.
“I don’t think the people who are protesting can explain what it is they’re opposed to.”
Those RNZ has spoken to at the hīkoi - including Māori lawyer Maree Sylva - have been clear about their position.
“Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our founding document and the takahi [trampling] of the mana of that document is obviously something we don’t support at the moment so we’re here to tautoko the kaupapa,” Sylva said.
The bill sets out to define the Treaty of Waitangi principles that would be used to interpret legislation but critics say it revokes the promises and guarantees made to Māori in 1840.
Opposition parties are geared up to fight the bill Thursday, with Te Pāti Māori Debbie Ngarewa-Packer saying the left will work together to oppose it.
“We’ve been very vocal in the fact that the opposition are united and stand in solidarity against this atrocious bill..
Ngarewa-Packer did not rule out doing anything “special” for the bill’s first reading today, instead laughing when asked the question.
“You know we always do,” she said.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said it wasn’t too late for National to back down from supporting the legislation through the first reading.
“They never should have agreed to it in the coalition agreement. They said before the election that they wouldn’t support it.
" I think they‘ve betrayed voters’ trust in signing up to it as part of the coalition agreement. I think they should go back to the position that they had before the election. There is no mandate for this bill."
Seymour said National was too scared to take on a big debate, going as far as predicting it would go on to take the credit for the bill down the track.
“Often, like Three Strikes, like charter schools, give it a few years and the National Party says ‘best thing we ever thought of’,” Seymour said.
It’s more than likely Luxon would like to stop thinking about the Treaty Principles Bill soon, having described it as “divisive”.
But the debate is only just starting, with a six month long Select Committee process ahead before the legislation is read a second time.
Those living in the middle of the North Island can expect to see the hīkoi pass by in the coming days as it makes its way south - expected to arrive in Wellington on Tuesday next week.
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By Anneke Smith of RNZ
