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Massive crowds march on New Zealand parliament to protest Māori bill

Massive crowds march on New Zealand parliament to protest Māori bill

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Protesters numbering over 40,000 marched to New Zealand's Parliament to voice their opposition to a bill that critics claim would compromise the rights of Maori people. The bill in question is a proposed reinterpretation of the founding treaty between the British Crown and Maori chiefs, which has become a focal point for discussions on racial relations in the country. Despite its unlikelihood to pass, the issue has drawn significant attention and sparked large-scale protests, with the recent march being one of the biggest in recent New Zealand history. The protest, which began nine days prior in the country's northern region, saw traditional Maori hakas performed while marching alongside protesters. While the bill's proponents argue it is necessary, its opponents claim it threatens to divide society.

David Seymour
ACT Party
1. I would argue the division is already there – you say my bill is causing division, I would say it is revealing division that's built up over several decades.
2. My Treaty Principles Bill says that I, like everybody else, whether their ancestors came here a thousand years ago, like some of mine did, or just got off the plane at Auckland International Airport this morning to begin their journey as New Zealanders, have the same basic rights and dignity.
3. Your starting point is to take a human being and ask, what's your ancestry? What kind of human are you? That used to be called prejudice. It used to be called bigotry. It used to be called profiling and discrimination. Now you're trying to make a virtue of it. I think that's a big mistake.
4. This bill does not change the text of the treaty itself … it democratises the principles.
Ngira Simmons
Māori
1. The Māori Queen is willing to help lead a conversation about nationhood and national unity but she will not accept a unilateral process that undermines [the treaty].
Christopher Luxon
New Zealand Government
1. Our position as the National Party is unchanged. We won't be supporting the bill beyond second reading and therefore it won't become law.
2. We don't think through the stroke of a pen you go rewrite 184 years of debate and discussion.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
Te Pāti Māori
1. It's humiliating for the government because we [New Zealand] are normally seen as punching above our weight in all of the great things in life.
2. We can't live equally if we have one people who are the indigenous people living 'less than'.
Kassie Hartendorp
ActionStation Aotearoa
1. We never ceded sovereignty, we never handed it over. We gave a generous invitation to new settlers to create their own government because they were unruly and lawless at the time.
Tukukino Royal
1. Today is a show of kotahitanga — solidarity — and being one as a people, and [to] uphold our rights as Indigenous Māori.
Hayley Komene
1. Te tiriti is a constitutional document of our country.
2. There are people from lots of different backgrounds here for the same reason - it's beautiful.
Barbara Lecomte
1. There's a whole cosmopolitan mix of different nationalities now. We are all New Zealanders. I think we should work together and have equal rights.
2. They seem to want more and more and more. I do not know why weshould have more for one race than another. We're all New Zealanders. We shouldbe able to work together and have equal rights.

Massive crowds march on New Zealand parliament to protest Māori bill

Māori rights bill

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