What the Hell Is Happening in New Zealand's Parliament?

Before the vote resumed, Brownlee then ordered the gallery's removal; suspended 22-year-old Maipi-Clarke, the youngest member of Parliament, for the rest of the day; and ejected Māori lawmaker Willie Jackson, who shouted, "Shame! Shame! Shame on you, David Seymour! Shame on you for what you're trying to do to this nation!"

Brownlee threw out Jackson, formerly the Minister for Māori Development, specifically for calling Seymour "a liar," an accusation that's considered unparliamentary language. Jackson was asked to withdraw his statement and apologize, but he refused. He also accused Seymour of carrying out a "hate tour."

Mr Jackson should have been asked to leave far sooner than he was. He deliberately flouted so many rules it was obvious he didn’t care. Speaker Brownlee ejected him only for the rest of the day when it should have been a month or two.

A lot of the poor behaviour is down to Brownlee’s lax supervision, but the bottom line is that our parliament today just has too many ignorant ill mannered lowlife. Mainly on the opposition benches.

If we can’t fix MMP, we should at least do something about the Maori seats. They had outlived their initial purpose a hundred years ago.

National won’t do what is necessary, but maybe ACT will if they become the main opposition party next election.

@NZNationalparty

@actparty

@nzfirst

pic.twitter.com/Y67UBXOo5s— The Redbaiter (@TheRedbaiter) November 15, 2024

In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and hundreds of Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, paving the way for Britain's declaration of sovereignty and the Crown colony's establishment.

Under the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, the Māori tribes were promised broad rights to retain their lands and safeguard their interests in return for ceding governance to the British.

If enacted, Seymour's bill would redefine the founding document to specify that those rights should apply to all New Zealanders.

"What all of these principles have in common is that they afford Māori different rights from other New Zealanders," said Seymour, who is Māori, during the debate Thursday. He says that the decades-long dispute over the treaty has sown racial division.

Seymour, who's also New Zealand's associate justice minister, argues that since the treaty's principles were never legally defined, the courts have taken creative liberty to "justify actions that are contrary to the principle of equal rights," such as unequal access to taxpayer-funded services and ethnic quotas in public institutions that run counter to the spirit of fairness for all New Zealanders regardless of ancestry.

Although the treaty itself is not enshrined in law, clauses in the document guide policy today, and aspects of it have been adopted over time into the legislation. Court rulings have since greatly expanded Māori privileges, and Seymour says this priority treatment discriminates against non-indigenous citizens.

The ACT Party is seeking a "democratization" of the treaty that would incorporate the voices of all New Zealanders through a democratic parliamentary process rather than via the Waitangi Tribunal, which has interpreted the treaty and prescribed policy without the electorate as a whole being democratically consulted.

Anti-"colonial oppression" activists, who believe that the Māori have been historically disenfranchised despite what they were promised, have worked to instill the "Māori way of life" in New Zealand. These efforts include obtaining billion-dollar land settlements as reparations, the teaching of the Māori language in New Zealand schools, and guaranteed positions in government.

"You are complicit in the harm and the division that this presents," Rawiri Waititi, a Te Pāti Māori co-leader, told those who helped advance the bill. He accused Seymour of running the country "like the KKK."

Seymour's ACT Party, a libertarian group, is allied with the National and New Zealand First parties in a center-right coalition. Though the unpopular bill is unlikely to become law, it passed a first vote Thursday, thanks to the backing of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's National Party. Luxon himself opposes it, but his party voted in favor of the bill because of a political deal struck with Seymour that ultimately landed Luxon the PM post. In the last election, Luxon earned the ACT Party's support to help him win enough seats — in exchange for political concessions.

So, as part of the coalition agreement, Luxon told Seymour that the National Party's members would vote for the bill once while publicly promising that the proposal would not move further than the first reading.

A number of legislators delivered Parliament speeches saying they opposed the bill before voting for it, much to the chagrin of the Māori-allied MPs who demanded that they break rank.

"If you vote for this bill, this is who you are and this is how you will be remembered," Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick told Luxon's allies.

The bill passed after the votes were cast as planned and no one deviated. Now, the bill heads to a select committee for a six-month public submission process before it undergoes another vote.