Heated topic: Submissions against the Treaty Principles Bill broke records and numbered in the hundreds of thousands, while a nationwide hīkoi protesting it arrived at Parliament with 42,000 people. Yesterday it was voted out. Photo: Reece Baker
The final hours of the Treaty Principles Bill were as divided as its short life was. But some have said the bill - introduced to Parliament by the ACT Party with the aim of re-defining the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi - was damaging to the nation and Te Pāti Māori say it should never have got off the ranks.
MPs engaged in fiery debates in the House on Thursday, at the bill's second reading. The Speaker Gerry Brownlee ordered Labour MP Willie Jackson to leave the House for not withdrawing and apologising for a reference to David Seymour and the word "liar", and Brownlee ordered the police to respond when a protester in the gallery interrupted ACT leader David Seymour's speech.
The vote: 112 noes to 11 ayes. Every party bar ACT voted against it, dealing the death blow, at which a waiata rang out through the House- Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, which Brownlee confirmed had been granted permission.
Te Pāti Māori leaders relieved, disappointed
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi celebrated the end of the Treaty Principles Bill.
"The rhetoric that has come out during the presentation of this bill to the House has been absolutely appalling. It has divided the nation, but it has strengthened a movement. And what we do want to acknowledge is 307,000 odd people submitted," Waititi said.
"Over a billion people viewed the hīkoi ... I just want to just reiterate the mihi to our people, tangata whenua, Tangata tiriti, Tangata Moana, for the resistance to such a divisive ... bill that didn't serve anything to the development and the continued development of our relationship here in Aotearoa."
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Last week, Parliament agreed all of the record-breaking number of submissions on the bill - more than 300,000 - would be added to the public record, despite earlier plans to exclude some. Another 16,000 people had requested to read oral submissions.
Parliament's Justice Select Committee last week said 90 percent of the submissions were against the bill with just 8 percent for it - and recommended that Parliament scrap it.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer explained the party's more harmonious approach to the second reading, compared to the haka of the first.
"There was a lot of expectations for us to do what we did in the first reading. This was first of all different, it was a celebration - the first reading was deeply painful and traumatic, Ngarewa-Packer said.
"We also have been in negotiations with the Speaker over the last couple of days to get an agreement to get an extension to make sure the gallery wasn't locked, to make sure that our mana whenua and our supporters of the mana whenua on this bill were able to get access.
"We decided that the mana, the waiata or any haka needs to come from upstairs, to give [an] end and to be able to take the mauri of this bill, lift it ... it was actually about respecting our mana whenua and leaving it with them."
What's next?
ACT leader David Seymour told media after his bill's defeat that not one of the hundreds of thousands of submissions made to Parliament about it had actually addressed its contents.
Debate about the principles of the treaty would continue, he said.
And he hopes to revive the bill in next year's election.
Waititi said the party would be watching.
"This is one battle won, but we've got to be vigilant about other harmful policies that are coming out of this government and to ensure that this is not a one-off catalyst.
"We must always be on our game to ensure that we don't allow similar bills to pass that have similar consequences, where the denigration of the rights, preserve Te Tiriti o Waitangi, are not challenged or are not denigrated any more.
"We will continue to be at the sentinel tower."
Ngarewa-Packer said the party had spent the past year in "defence mode", and the party next wanted to focus more firmly on entrenching Te Tiriti and supporting the rest of the nation to "enjoy learning the absolute taonga that we have in Te Tiriti".
Waititi said he believed there should be more educational programmes for MPs being inducted in to Parliament.
"There are no obligations for any MP sitting in this house, to Te Tiriti or Waitangi or to training ... it's mentioned, but it's just something that just sits in the corner like a spider in the corner of this house."
He said the country was not ready for a referendum on the matter, because people had not had the education they deserved to have to understand the Treaty's place in New Zealand's constitutional arrangements.
