Hīkoi a protest that cannot be ignored

Wednesday, 20 November 2024

Crowds spilled out around Parliament as a hikoi protesting David Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill reached Wellington, with thousands of people making their voices heard loud and clear. Jenna Lynch reports.

ANALYSIS: The crowd just keep coming. Parliament’s forecourt was already bulging, people were pouring into the precinct from Lambton Quay, and there were reports the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti protest march stretched back further still, to the corner of Willis and Manners streets ‒ some 900 metres back through the CBD.

That’s what a protest of an estimated 42,500 people (according to police) looks like. It is almost certainly the biggest protest to ever have landed on the front lawn of Parliament. The mood was bright, the crowd overwhelmingly safe and respectful but making their presence felt. From public servants on lunch break, gang members wheeling prams. The organisers at both ends of the march gave health and safety briefings, kept he crowd informed about the programme and what was about to happen.

Thousands of people marched through Wellington protesting the Treaty Principles Bill.

The contrast to the rag-tag Parliamentary occupation and subsequent riot in February 2022 could not have been more stark. Had a crowd of this volume descended on Parliament in aid of that agenda, the outcome would have been far more serious that the already horrid pitched battle on Molesworth St.

Timelapse of hikoi arriving at Parliament

It was a sterling expression of an important democratic right ‒ to peacefully protest. The people showed up, waved flags, sang songs, got involved and then headed off home.

The crowd skewed young.

And it was all in aid of a general set of Treaty issues raised by a single piece of legislation that will never be passed by the Parliament.

On Tuesday morning, as the hīkoi was getting started, the Justice Select Committee opened submissions on ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill, which will run through until 7 January of next year.

For the Te Pāti Māori-associated protest this event was a success probably well beyond what they envisaged. Numerous politicians from all parties were out there ‒ with the notable exception of Prime Minster Christopher Luxon, who had not been invited to speak. ACT leader David Seymour showed up with a phalanx of security, got booed, stuck around for a few minutes and headed back inside.

Tens of thousands of people attended the hīkoi to Parliament on Tuesday.

It is easy to get carried away in the emotion and sheer demonstrative power of having so many people gathered in one place all together. But as the months wear on, and the bill hears submissions before being voted down, there are a few immediate takeaways.

First, this should be a great boon to Te Pāti Māori and the wider ecosystem of Māori and Treaty rights activism. Getting something like this organised means gathering emails, phones numbers, organising people and giving them a taste for being involved. That could help immensely leading into the 2026 election.

ACT leader David Seymour showed up with a phalanx of security, stuck around for a few minutes and headed back inside.

Second, this will continue to be problematic for the prime minister. Luxon ‒ not unreasonably ‒ defends supporting the bill to a first reading as a vicissitude of MMP. It is. But it’s a deal that he made and he will now have to spend months defending the process of a bill he has said is dead. Coalition politics aside, many Kiwis tuning in will just be wondering, why waste time on this?

Luxon is big on not allowing what he calls “distractions” to the main game of National delivering economic growth, fiscal consolidation, public service reform and so on. But this bill is basically the definition of a distraction ‒ from the National Party’s point of view anyway. Luxon can’t kill it so he will just have to eat it for the next few months.

Third, the protest and what comes out of it will be no bad thing for Seymour. He will be able to claim ‒ once it is debated and voted down ‒ the political elites got together to stymie an issue of importance for many New Zealanders. Whereas if this issue sways some people away from voting National, it is unlikely to dissuade anyone voting for ACT and could in fact achieve the opposite.

Fourth and last is a question. It is very difficult to tell just where the politics of it all will land once the bill is voted down. Will it hang round National’s neck or will it simply fade into the background 18 months out from an election?

Either way, the weight of numbers will not be ignored by those sitting in Parliament. How politicians respond will be the next big test.