Act Party leader David Seymour has taken to Facebook after the Waitangi Tribunal interim report urged that his Treaty Principles Bill be abandoned.
Seymour wrote to his followers that he welcomed the tribunal’s “contribution to the debate”.
“We need a national conversation about our founding document.
“Are there two classes of New Zealanders in partnership, each with different rights? Or are we a modern democracy where all citizens have equal rights? I look forward to having that discussion over the next several months.
“My fundamental question is this: Where are the successful societies that treat people differently based on their ancestry? Many of the worst events in history came from treating humans based on their membership of a group,” Seymour wrote.
The Act Party leader was one of the ministers addressed personally in the report, alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Ministers Tama Potaka and Paul Goldsmith.
He questioned the role of non-Māori children “born today” especially “if the Treaty was a partnership between the Crown and only Māori”.
“Are they born into second-class citizenship where some public positions are not available to them because they have the wrong ancestors?
“New Zealand can have a bright future but it requires casting off the divisive notion that the Treaty is a partnership between two classes of New Zealanders each with different rights.
“It is not only untrue, it is incompatible with the fundamental democratic value that all citizens are equal under the law.
“Each of us is united by universal humanity. The same rights, the same dignities for every person. That is what has driven all the good movements in human history.”
The tribunal found Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill to be breaching the duty to act in good faith and to act reasonably.
“By engaging with this policy, the Crown is sanctioning a process that will take away indigenous rights,” Waitangi Tribunal chair Judge Caren Fox wrote in a letter.
He believed this was the only way forward for any society.
“Every time we say that people have different rights based on ancestry, we breed resentment. And more importantly, we create the idea that which group you’re a member of is more important than your basic value as a human being.”
ACT’s draft Treaty Principles Bill is planned to be lodged on August 29 for consideration by the cabinet on September 2.