Over 400 Christian leaders call on MPs to vote down Treaty Principles Bill

Monday, 9 September 2024

David Seymour responds to criticism of treaty bill

Over 400 Christian leaders signed an open letter to the government opposing the Treaty Principles Bill.

They also called on MPs to not let it get to Select Committee.

Common Grace Aotearoa wrote in the letter that the Bill would undermine what Te Tiriti guarantees.

David Seymour has admonished church leaders after more than 400 signed an open letter stating they oppose his party’s Treaty Principles Bill and have called on MPs to not let it get to Select Committee.

The signatures include those from all three Anglican Archbishops, a current Catholic Archbishop and a Cardinal, President of the Methodist Church, Commissioner of the Salvation Army, and the leaders of the Vineyard Movement and other pentecostal church denominations.

The bill, proposed by ACT, would define the principles of the Treaty to what ACT says was actually written and signed in 1840 - the same rights and duties for all New Zealanders.

Common Grace Aotearoa, an organisation that organises Christians on Treaty justice among other issues, wrote in the letter that as Christian leaders from across the country “we express our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

“We affirm that Te Tiriti o Waitangi protects the Tino Rangatiratanga of hapū and iwi. That rangatiratanga over land and taonga is to be upheld.

“We therefore express our opposition to the proposed Treaty Principles Bill. The proposed Bill is inconsistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi in that it does not recognise the collective rights of iwi Māori or guarantee their relationship with the Crown.

“It would undermine what Te Tiriti guarantees, and what decades of law, jurisprudence and policy have sought to recognise.”

In a statement, Seymour said that while he is not a religious person, he does have an enormous respect for “the core Christian principle imago dei” which he says means we all have “equal dignity” and is the foundation of “liberal democracy.”

“That belief, however, is totally at odds with the recent interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, that it creates a partnership between races,” Seymour says.

The bill, proposed by ACT, would define the principles of the Treaty to what ACT says was actually written and signed in 1840

“It would be unusual, to say the least, for two thousand years of Christian faith to be overturned by a one page Treaty signed by a few hundred people in one country. The Treaty Principles Bill, reinforcing that all humans have equal rights, is something that Christian leaders should be supporting, if they want to play in politics.

“If you wonder why church attendance and reported Christianity is in decline in New Zealand, today's display of church leaders abandoning a core, if not the core, Christian belief to play politics might be a clue.”

The Waitangi Tribunal released its interim report into the Treaty Principles Bill in August slamming it as “unfair, discriminatory” and will “belie” the partnership between Māori and the Crown.

However ACT leader David Seymour, who spearheaded the bill, rejected that claim, and said New Zealand needed to have a ‘national conversation’ about the Treaty of Waitangi.

Those who signed the open letter had various motivations for signing.

Green Party’s spokesperson for Māori and Crown Relations, Steve Abel said Luxon’s actions ‘need to match his words’.

Very RevJay Ruka, Dean of Taranaki Cathedral and author of a book about the Treaty and Christianity, said It was ”beyond grievous that David Seymour is intentionally pitching the sacredness of Te Tiriti O Waitangi and the significance of democracy against each other.“

Commissioner Mark Campbell, the Salvation Army Territorial Leader of New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, said they acknowledged Te Tiriti o Waitangi “as the basis of a cultural partnership between Māori as the Tangata Whenua and non-Māori.”

“We view Te Tiriti as a sacred, covenantal, agreement and, as such, are asking the Government to stop any further progress of the ‘Treaty Principles Bill’ along with any other measures that threaten to undermine the articles and intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

The Green Party has again urged the prime minister to abandon the Treaty Principles Bill after the letter was sent.

“This letter is an endorsement of Te Tiriti justice and an indictment on the Treaty Principles Bill,” Green Party’s spokesperson for Māori development, Hūhana Lyndon said.

Lyndon said this Bill would see Aotearoa lose sight and fall out of touch with the very core of our country.

“The prime minister has the power to prevent this Bill from progressing a step further.”

Green Party’s spokesperson for Māori and Crown Relations, Steve Abel said Luxon’s actions “need to match his words”.

“He cannot stand at Waitangi and say that Te Tiriti is our past, present and future and then let legislation that corrupts the very meaning of the Treaty to progress through our Parliament.”