The Government’s Treaty Principles Bill has been defeated at its second reading, concluding more than a year of contention over the controversial legislation.
“The noes are 112. The motion is lost,” said Speaker Gerry Brownlee.
The only party to support the bill was ACT with its 11 votes. Opposition MPs and some in the public gallery stood and applauded the result.
A waiata, which was permitted by Brownlee, followed from the gallery.
The voting down of the bill came after a fiery debate between MPs.
The legislation was defeated with only ACT supporting it. (Source: 1News)
Labour’s Chris Hipkins said the “grubby little bill” was a “stain on our country” after ACT’s David Seymour made a final plea for Parliamentarians to support his legislation.
‘MPs can still change their mind’ – Seymour
Seymour, the architect of the bill and leader of ACT, was interrupted just seconds into introducing the second reading of the legislation by a protester in the public gallery who began singing in te reo Māori. Brownlee called the outburst “unacceptable”.
“Anyone else who thinks that’s acceptable … will be treated harshly by the officers of the law who are here,” he said.
Seymour resumed his speech.
“Members of this house can still change their mind and send this bill onwards to a referendum of the people,” he continued.
“I ask that members listen carefully to understand the choice that they’ll be denying the New Zealand people if they oppose this bill.
“Five decades ago, this House passed the Treaty of Waitangi Act, saying that the Treaty had principles but failing to say what they were, and those principles as a concept are not going away.”
He said the review of Treaty clauses in legislation committed to in the New Zealand First coalition agreement would not touch the Act, and the “unelected judges, the Waitangi Tribunal and the public servants” have to find the principles instead.
“The effect of these principles have become more and more obvious lately.
“The idea that your race matters is a version of a bigger problem, it’s part of that bigger idea that our lives are determined by things out of our control.”
Both National and New Zealand First have vowed not to support the bill. The only party in Parliament expected to support the legislation will be ACT.
‘A stain on our country’ – Hipkins on Treaty bill
Labour leader Chris Hipkins called the Treaty Principles Bill “a stain on our country”.
“What I do take pride in is the way New Zealanders have come together over the last six months to say loud and clear ‘This is not us, this is not Aotearoa New Zealand’.”
Later on in the debate, Labour’s Willie Jackson was ejected from the debating chamber for refusing to withdraw a statement he made about Seymour.
In his speech, Hipkins described the proposed legislation as a “grubby little bill born of a grubby little deal” and that the coalition partners can have “no credit for starting to fight the fire they helped to ignite”.
“Not one National MP should walk out of this debating chamber today with their heads held high. They lead nothing, they stopped nothing, and they stood for nothing.”
The bill was based on a “mythology” of Māori special privilege, Hipkins said.
“No member of this House simply gets to wipe all of those 185 years of history away to suit their own purposes because Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not just history, it’s not just ink on a paper. It’s a living promise.”
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson began her speech by describing her fear of missing out during the hīkoi last year.
“I was inspired by your beautiful kotahitanga energy,” she said.
“This house will and should hear repeatedly today that 90% of the submissions [on the bill were] opposed. Record breaking submissions to the select committee oppose this bill, 80% of the oral submissions also oppose this bill and that is from 529 oral submissions. The people spoke there was one clear message: Toitū Te Tiriti.”
She challenged ACT to “release their myth of special treatment and find their equity bone”.
“I implore them, so they don’t bring any more embarrassing Bills like this to the House.”
Davidson was told her speech may be terminated because of her repeated reference of the Prime Minister who was not in the House, which is against standing orders.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, who spoke for the National Party, said the outcome of the bill had been known since its introduction.
“National has consistently said we’ll not support it into law,” he said.
“Fundamentally because we regard the bill – which seeks to impose a particular interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi by simple majority and referendum is a crude way to handle a very sensitive topic.”
Hipkins’ speech was “hyperbole” and National had to compromise to form the coalition, Goldsmith said.
“That is life under MMP. Our country is not so fragile that we can’t stand a debate about the role of Te Tiriti.”
He said National did not oppose discussions about the Treaty and its place in New Zealand. “It has to be worked through issue by issue.”
Meanwhile, New Zealand First’s Casey Costello said the bill “would have taken us back to the courts [which] is the last thing this country needs”.
She said the party was well-aware of the compromises related to the Treaty Principles Bill coming to a second reading.
“Even if we agree, which we don’t, even if it were to pass, which it won’t, a subsequent Parliament could change the definitions and so a cycle could continue.”
New Zealand First had the “longest, uninterrupted position” on the Treaty of Waitangi, she said. “One nation, one flag, one people, that is who we are.”
Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who led the haka during the first reading debate, said her speech was “daunting” to write.
“We’re not going to talk about the Treaty Principles Bill … the whole world knows our view of it,” she said, referring to the viral video of her ripping up the bill during its first reading.
“This bill hasn’t been stopped, it’s been absolutely annihilated.”
Maipi-Clarke said the real issue was not the bill but the institution “only ever recognising one partner, one culture, one language from one Treaty”.
“When will the rules of this house acknowledge the laws of this land – tikanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
The bill received approximately 300,000 submissions and requests for 16,000 oral submissions. (Source: 1News)
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was absent from the debating chamber today as he usually is on Thursdays. He insisted this was due to scheduling of proceedings in Parliament rather than intentionally avoiding the debate.
It was time to move forward from the bill, he said earlier today
“We’ve got serious things to get done.”
Hipkins, who is also typically absent in Parliament on Thursdays, changed his diary to attend and speak. Before the debate in Parliament, Seymour said he remained optimistic his coalition partners would change their minds and support the legislation.
What is the Treaty Principles Bill?
The Treaty Principles Bill proposed to redefine how the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi are interpreted and applied in laws and decision-making.
The principles are interpretations of the Treaty that the courts and government officials have developed since the passing of the Treaty of Waitangi Act in 1975.
The principles were created in part to bridge the differences between the two versions of the Treaty and guide relations between the Crown and Māori.
While there is no definitive list of principles, people often refer to the “three Ps”:
- Partnership – the Treaty created a relationship between Māori and the Crown, in which both parties must act reasonably and with the utmost good faith.
- Participation – the Crown will give tangata whenua the opportunity to engage with decision-making at all levels.
- Protection – the Government must prioritise the active protection of Māori interests, rights, taonga and rangatiratanga.
No principles have ever been expressly defined in law, which is what ACT leader David Seymour said the Treaty Principles Bill was seeking to do.
The legislation is officially known as the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill.
If passed and supported at a subsequent referendum, the bill would have required the new principles to be used when interpreting laws. Those proposed principles are:
- Civil government – the Government of New Zealand has full power to govern, and Parliament has full power to make laws. They do so in the best interests of everyone, and in accordance with the rule of law and the maintenance of a free and democratic society.
- Rights of hapū and iwi Māori – the Crown recognises the rights that hapū and iwi had when they signed the Treaty/te Tiriti. The Crown will respect and protect those rights. Those rights differ from the rights everyone has a reasonable expectation to enjoy only when they are specified in Treaty settlements.
- Right to equality – everyone is equal before the law and is entitled to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. Everyone is entitled to the equal enjoyment of the same fundamental human rights without discrimination.
How did we get here?
National and New Zealand First committed to supporting ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill to the select committee stage when signing their coalition deals in November 2023. ACT had campaigned on a referendum on the Treaty principles.
While neither of ACT’s coalition partners agreed to support the bill to a second reading, it took several months before Prime Minister Christopher Luxon effectively killed the bill by completely ruling out National’s support for it going further in Parliament.
In January 2024, 1News was leaked a Ministry of Justice memo on the bill.
It expressed concerns the proposed law would conflict with the rights and interests of Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi, that the Crown was trying to define Treaty principles without consulting with Māori, that the bill breached international agreements, and that it infringed on the Māori right to self-determination.
An interim report by the Waitangi Tribunal in August described the bill as “little more than a politically motivated attack on perceived ‘Māori privilege’.”
The tribunal added in the second part of its report – released when the bill’s introduction to the House was brought forward in November – that the legislation would be the “worst, most comprehensive breach of the Treaty/te Tiriti in modern times” if enacted.
First reading
On November 14, the legislation had its first reading in Parliament.
MPs who opposed the bill described it as being “divisive”, a “wrecking ball” to Crown-Māori relations, and “amounting to a dictatorship of the majority”.
Labour MP Willie Jackson was booted from the debating chamber after he called Seymour a “liar”. A subsequent haka led by Te Pāti Māori MPs saw proceedings suspended before the vote could be finished.
Privileges Committee is looking into MPs’ conduct during the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill. (Source: 1News)
Once MPs returned to an empty public gallery, the bill passed its first reading and went to the select committee stage.
Complaints from other MPs saw the participants Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke and Labour’s Peeni Henare called in front of Parliament’s Privileges Committee, with the Te Pāti Māori MPs refusing to appear.
Henare was recommended to apologise, although the MP said he did not regret the haka.
Hīkoi mō te Tiriti
On November 19, more than 42,000 people, including the Māori Queen, Nga wai hono i te po, marched on Parliament.
The nine-day hīkoi organised by Toitū te Tiriti, which had begun in the Far North and crossed Auckland’s Harbour Bridge, was in opposition to the Treaty Principles Bill alongside other Government policies derided by protesters as anti-Māori.
1News’ Te Aniwa Hurihanganui reports from the capital as Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived. (Source: 1News)
It was one of the largest demonstrations of its kind in the country’s history.
The bill’s proponent, ACT leader David Seymour, briefly appeared alongside his MPs on Parliament’s forecourt, to boos from the crowd and chants of “kill the bill” led by Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
Submissions phase
Submissions on the legislation opened on November 20 and initially closed on January 7, although the deadline was extended until January 14 after people encountered problems with submitting online.
In total, Parliamentarians received more than 300,000 written submissions and requests for 16,000 oral submissions, representing the largest response to proposed legislation Parliament has ever received.
Thousands of submissions were to be excluded from the record because staff didn’t have enough time to process them, but ACT MP Todd Stephenson moved a last-minute motion last Thursday to add all submissions to the public record.
Parliament’s Justice Committee released its 45-page report on the bill the next day which recommended it not proceed.
Written submissions were 90% opposed, 8% supportive and 2% unstated. Oral submissions were 85% opposed, 10% supportive and 5% unstated.
Seymour disagreed with the committee’s recommendation and said he didn’t believe the opposition reflected the true opinion of New Zealanders.
He pointed to ACT’s End of Life Choice law as an example of the gap between submissions and public opinion. In submissions, 90% opposed the law – but when put to a referendum, it passed by 65% to 34%.