'Shame': Outcry as Treaty Principles Bill debated in Parliament
Thursday, 14 November 2024
A volatile debate over the Treaty Principles Bill in the House has ended with a Te Pāti Māori MP suspended from Parliament and a Labour MP booted for calling ACT leader David Seymour a “liar”.
Parliament was due to conclude its first debate on the controversial bill on Thursday afternoon when, as Te Pāti Māori was called on to vote, Hauraki-Waikato MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke stood and begun a haka that was joined by supporters in the public gallery and Labour and Green Party MPs.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee was unable to stop the disruption, as Maipi-Clarke and Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi stood over ACT leader David Seymour amid the performance of Ka Mate.
When Brownlee could be heard, he ordered Parliament suspended and the public gallery cleared before the vote could be resumed. MPs were left in their seats, appearing confused about what would happen next.
When Brownlee later returned to the House, he condemned Maipi-Clarke’s “grossly disorderly” premeditated action by “naming” her in the House, asking members that she be suspended. The Government parties voted in favour and Maipi-Clarke was suspended, under Parliament’s rules, for 24 hours.
It was a fiery conclusion to what had become a difficult debate in the House which ended with the Treaty Principles Bill being voted through by 68 votes to 54 ‒ one less vote than Parliament’s 123 MPs due to Maipi-Clarke’s suspension.
Seymour afterwards said the scenes in the House made the point of his bill apparent.
“A lot of people have tried to say that I'm divisive. Well, these are the people that are making comparisons to the KKK, shouting, yelling, doing haka in the middle of the debating chamber. Actually, that's divisive.”
For weeks Seymour has been antagonist to his Government and its critics alike, pushing on with a bill his coalition partners have not supported, beyond conceding it was part of their coalition agreement with ACT.
Hours before the bill was to enter the House, and shortly before leaving for Peru, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon addressed Seymour with his strongest statement against the legislation yet, saying the ACT leader was not helping the Government focus on the “hard issues” like the cost of living.
Come Thursday afternoon, Seymour was the comparatively quiet and lone voice in a Parliament apparently united against his controversial bill that struck at the heart of New Zealand’s history.
From the outset of the debate in the House, Opposition parties sought and failed to derail the introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill into the House with interjections.
Once unimpeded, Seymour spoke quickly through his 10-minute speech, watching the clock, raising his voice to be heard above the heckling and counter-commentary coming from the Opposition benches.
“This Government has not been stopped by this bill, from making massive progress in health and housing and economic growth … you can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Seymour said, amid the clamour.
“The division that you are seeing was not caused by this bill, it has built up over decades during which New Zealanders have come to regard themselves as based on ancestry or one side of a partnership … the division is there whether this bill is here to reveal it or not.”
Brownlee had ordered the public gallery remain quiet or face expulsion. As Seymour spoke, a baby began crying all the same. But the bawling infant was no match for the Opposition MPs, who Brownlee twice had to shush during Seymour’s speech.
“Shame!” cried Labour MP Willie Jackson at the opening of his speech in response.
“Ngāti Rēhia will be ashamed that one of its sons have come up with a political stance that looks to divide the nation,” he said, in a pointed comment about Seymour’s whakapapa.
The public gallery erupted in applause, and was warned against it by Brownlee, when Jackson claimed former National Party prime ministers would not have been “played” as he claimed Luxon had been.
“David Seymour: you fuel hatred and misinformation in this country, you bring out the worst in New Zealanders, you should be ashamed of yourself, and you are a liar,” Jackson concluded.
Before Seymour could protest, Brownlee ruled that Jackson should apologise for calling the ACT leader a liar.
“No, that's a message from the hīkoi,” Jackson said, before being booted from the House.
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the “biggest thing” standing in the way of insatiable capitalism ‒ which the Greens believe ACT represents ‒ was the movement for mana motuhake, or indigenous sovereignty.
“Pākehā mā, tauiwi mā, we have been told for almost all of our lives that Māori sovereignty is something to be afraid of. Who has been telling you that? Who benefits and who pays the price?
“The discomfort that you feel, that I once felt, is an invitation to listen, to learn, to understand, and to honour.”
Throughout the debate, National MPs rose to solemnly speak of the National-ACT coalition agreement and their party’s commitment to the Treaty as it stood.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith said there was a tension between honouring Treaty commitments to Māori and the basic expectations of a modern democracy, but to be absolutist about it overlooked “the complications of history and commitments made”.
“Our proposition is that, as a nation, we should be serious in our commitment to the first but, in doing so, should be careful never to lose sight of or drift too far from the second.”
Waititi was the loudest to speak: “ACT are seen to be pulling the strings and running the country like the KKK.”
To Seymour, he said, “See you next Tuesday”. A protest hīkoi reaching Rotorua on Thursday would be on Parliament’s forecourt next week to carry on the debate.