Lawmakers stage Maori protest in NZ parliament during race relations debate

A vote in New Zealand’s parliament was suspended, and two lawmakers were ejected yesterday when the parliament erupted over a controversial proposed law redefining the country’s founding agreement between Indigenous Maori and the British Crown.

Under the principles laid out in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which guided the relationship between the government and Maori, tribes were promised broad rights to retain their lands and protect their interests in return for ceding governance to the British.

The Bill would specify that those rights should apply to all New Zealanders.

The Bill has scant support and is unlikely to become law.

Detractors say it threatens racial discord and constitutional upheaval, while thousands of New Zealanders are travelling the length of the country this week to protest it.

Despite its unpopularity, however, the proposed law passed its first vote yesterday after dominating public discussion for months, due to a quirk of New Zealand’s political system that allows tiny parties to negotiate outsized influence for their agendas.

It also reflects unease among some New Zealanders about more rapid progress in recent years toward upholding the promises made to Maori when the country was colonized.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, though his party voted for the Bill yesterday to fulfil the political deal with David Seymour, the leader of the minor libertarian party ACT and the Bill’s author, that handed Luxon power.

Without enough seats to govern after last October's election, Luxon curried support from two minor parties – including Seymour's ACT, which won less than 9 percent of the vote – in return for political concessions.

Luxon told Seymour his party would vote for the treaty Bill once while promising publicly that it would go no further.

Luxon told reporters the treaty’s principles had been negotiated and debated for 184 years, and it was “simplistic” for Seymour to suggest that they could be resolved through the stroke of a pen.

Government lawmakers made awkward speeches in parliament explaining that they opposed the Bill before voting for it to jeers from opponents, who demanded they break ranks.

Willie Jackson, a veteran Maori lawmaker, shouted at Seymour, calling their actions shameful.

Jackson was thrown out of the debating chamber by Speaker Gerry Brownlee for calling Seymour a liar.

[Source: Voanews.com]