Submission on the Treaty Principles Bill

Make a submission against this nasty piece of legislation. The closing date for submissions is 11.59pm Tuesday, 07 January 2025 and you can make your submission here.

Here is the submission of myself and Bronwen Summers:

The bill aims to split New Zealanders

1. We are strongly opposed to the Treaty Principles Bill. It is a divisive, anti-democratic piece of legislation which is designed to split New Zealanders by pandering to resentful, lazy, red-neck racism.

The bill promotes a “grievance culture” among Pākeha

1. The Treaty Principles Bill is designed to build a permanent hard-right constituency for the ACT Party by promoting a grievance culture amongst Pākeha based on the “big lie” that Māori enjoy greater rights and freedoms that other New Zealanders. The famous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of such a deceitful, divide and rule campaign against New Zealanders.

The bill is anti-democratic

1. The Treaty Principles Bill promotes a degraded democracy where “one-person, one-vote” is used to subject Māori to the “tyranny of the majority” where Māori representation is decided at the whim of Pākeha voters rather than as of right by Māori voters.
2. Democracy means government of the people, by the people and for the people. The Treaty Principles Bill promotes the idea of government of the majority culture, by the majority culture for the majority culture. A mature, developed democracy brings groups in a numerical minority to the decision-making table. Te Tiriti itself demands this for the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The bill aims to protect the unequal rights of the rich and powerful

1. The ACT Party claim everyone should have equal rights in Aotearoa New Zealand but the Party actively advocates for greater rights and greater political influence for mega landlords, big business owners and the super-wealthy who gain wealth and influence at the expense of the rest of us. For example ACT continually advocates for these groups to pay less tax than the rest of us and then demonises those who struggle under the weight of deliberately managed unemployment, addictions, and mental health issues as the victims of an unregulated capitalist economy.
2. The Treaty Principles Bill is designed to take public attention away from the fact that working class New Zealanders pay higher tax rates, receive poorer healthcare, education and housing and have less choices and less opportunities that the “hereditary rights” of the children of the rich.

The bill undermines the promise of a decolonised Aotearoa New Zealand

1. The Treaty Principles Bill would end two generations of progress towards a decolonised Aotearoa New Zealand where Te Tiriti is honoured, participatory democracy flourishes, Māori culture and values are a source of national pride and kotahitanga based on common values benefits us all.

Request to be heard by the Select Committee

1. We would like to be heard by the select committee to give an oral submission

Nā,

Bronwen Summers and John Minto