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 Read more
A mature, thoughtful conversation about Te Tiriti o Waitangi would be timely, but the Act party should not lead it. At the last election, it was the only party to propose a referendum on this subject, and 91.6 percent of the electorate did not support them. It had no democratic mandate to enact its ideas Read more
One Northland iwi, Ngāti Kahu, has drafted a letter to King Charles III concerning Te Tiriti O Waitangi . They want him to stop the “violent attack” on the Treaty presented by the ACT Party’s Treaty Principals Bill. Urgent hearing Iwi chairperson Professor Makere Mutu presented evidence at an urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing into the Read more
The End of Life Choice Act which governs assisted dying will be reviewed later this year. Health Minister Shane Reti (himself opposed to assisted dying) and the coalition partners are drawing up the review’s terms of reference. While Act Party leader David Seymour, who instigated the Assisted Dying laws, would like changes made to the Read more
Arguably one of the most revealing public debates taking place in New Zealand over the last week was one on Newshub Nation, between Dr Sinead Donnelly and David Seymour. Donnelly is a medical specialist with extensive experience of palliative care and dying people in four countries, and a Senior Lecturer at Otago University Wellington debated Read more
ACT leader David Seymour argues that those who oppose the End of Life Choice Act are doing so purely on religious grounds. He is ignoring the repeated clarification that this is not the case. However, that being said, there is another more fundamental issue; Seymour appears to belong to what Professor Robert George calls a Read more
A televised debate on the euthanasia referendum went septic when ACT leader, David Seymour accused Palliative Care Specialist, Dr Sinead Donnelly of basing her objections on religion, not facts. Donnelly and Seymour appeared on TV3’s Newshub Nation on Saturday morning. Donnelly said the proposed Act is a “dangerous law” that will put the lives of Read more
ACT leader David Seymour, Wednesday, issued a reminder to the New Zealand Catholic Bishops to keep the Commandments. In a statement on the End of Life Choice Act, Seymour singled out New Zealand’s Catholic Bishops and told them they needed to follow the ninth commandment and to ‘stop bearing false witness against their neighbours in Read more
ACT Party leader David Seymour raised the issue of the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the suicide rate during a speech in Parliament last week. Those involved in the sector said the numbers were greatly exaggerated. Provisional figures from the Chief Coroner, released last week, show the year-on-year suicide numbers down as well as a Read more
In recent weeks there have been unsubstantiated claims in New Zealand media by pro-euthanasia, retired doctors or ‘veteran medical specialists’ around the End of Life Choice Act, which will be voted on during the upcoming referendum. As specialist doctors trained in palliative medicine and currently practising in New Zealand, we’re extremely concerned at their argument Read more