New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he supports the Christian leaders in expressing their views; however, he has not seen a full draft of the ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill.
He was responding to Monday’s open letter from over 400 religious leaders who, sight unseen, wanted the Bill voted down at the first reading, preventing it from going to a Select Committee for public comment.
Luxon added that the National Party needs to honour its agreement with ACT as part of a democratically elected MMP government with coalition partners.
“I have a coalition agreement [and a] commitment, I honour those commitments” Luxon said.
“We have a coalition agreement, very clear, [we] went to the election, we have an MMP system, people voted, those are the cards they gave us.”
Luxon reiterated his position, explaining that while ACT would prefer a full public referendum after the Select Committee process, that is not going to happen.
No one has read the Treaty Principles Bill
ACT leader David Seymour confirmed that only a “broad outline” of the Bill was discussed at the Cabinet meeting before a draft version would be created and publicly released in November.
Seymour said that no one has read the Bill yet.
He told Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan on Monday that “the Government and the parties had agreed to the Bill’s broad outline. It now goes off to Parliament’s drafters who will take some time to write the exact wording”.
He said the religious leaders who sent the open letter have tried to halt public comment at the Select Committee stage.
Seymour argued that the Churches’ pushback undermined the democratic process and attempted to stifle debate.
He also accused the religious leaders of playing politics.
On Tuesday, CathNews reported that a range of Catholic individuals had signed the open letter.
Among New Zealand’s six Catholic bishops, Michael Dooley, Steve Lowe and Archbishop Paul Martin signed the letter, as well as several sisters, priests and emeritus bishops.
CathNews also learned from some signatories that they had not seen a draft of the Treaty Principles Bill and were not fully aware of the content of the open letter before signing it.
In attacking the signatories and discrediting them, one said it seemed ironic that Seymour appeared to be trying to prevent them from engaging in the democratic process, then doing precisely what he accused them of doing.
Labour and Greens congratulate religious leaders
Labour and the Greens have congratulated the Christian leaders for condemning the Treaty Principles Bill.
Willie Jackson, Labour’s Māori development spokesperson, praised them saying “I’m really pleased and congratulate them on their actions and their bravery… this takes some courage and bravery, and they deserve to be complimented and supported as far as I’m concerned”.
Marama Davidson, co-leader of the Green Party, expressed gratitude for the church leaders’ strong stance.
She viewed their action as demonstrating a deep commitment to upholding the centrality of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.