David Seymour has been here ‘many times before’ as ACT pursues Treaty Principles Bill

Sunday, 17 November 2024

Opposition MPs and the public gallery stood to perform Ka Mate during the bill's first reading.

ACT Party leader David Seymour believes he has been here before: politically isolated, at the centre of debate, and at-odds with much of Parliament.

He made the comment after sitting through nine speeches about his Treaty Principles Bill, a contentious piece of legislation which seeks to reinterpret the Treaty of Waitangi and legislation which upholds Māori rights.

David Seymour felt the full force of Māoridom until the speaker of the house removed everyone from the public gallery.

Five speakers from Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori denounced it as “shameful” and “offensive”. Three National MPs - who supported the Bill to first reading in order to fulfil the National-ACT coalition agreement - described it as “divisive” and a “crude way to handle a delicate subject”.

The reading reached a crescendo when Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke led the Opposition and much of the public gallery in a haka, before members of the public were ejected from the House on Thursday.

But speaking after the incident, which has been viewed by millions around the world, Seymour suggested he was in familiar territory, and that his years as the sole MP for the party of small government and low tax have galvanised his approach.

“As you know, I've been here many times before,” he said. “One time I was the only person to vote against the earthquake regulations. And people said ‘how could you do that in the wake of the Canterbury quakes?’ It turned out the laws cost tens of billions of dollars for no real benefit, and now the Government's repealing them.”

From single ACT MP to incoming deputy prime minister

Five years ago, David Seymour was the lone MP for aparty that seemed to have run its historical course after drawing only 0.5% of the party vote in the 2017 election. But by 2020, ACT won 7.6% and 10 seats in the House.

Now he is one of 11 ACT MPs in a coalition government, has his own Ministry for Regulation, and in six months will assume the role of deputy prime minister.

He describes the Treaty Principles Bill passing its first reading as “absolutely a success” - despite the fact it is not likely to pass its next legislative hurdle because Christopher Luxon, the prime minister, has said his party won’t support it beyond select committee.

But Seymour has made clear the Bill is part of a broader agenda related to what he describes as equal rights and duties for all, and which may take the party a number of years to fulfil.

ACT Party leader David Seymour campaigned on “honest and bold” conversations about the Treaty of Waitangi. (File photo)

He pointed to the more than two decades between former ACT MP Michael Laws first introducing the euthanasia debate into Parliament in 1995, and the End of Life Choice Bill passing its third reading in 2019.

“Sometimes it takes several attempts to get a debate like this up,” he said.

In an email to supporters on Friday, Seymour said his Bill was becoming “more popular by the day” despite the “media refusing to report fairly” and “misinformation from Te Pāti Māori and their allies”.

He then declared his belief that “our common humanity unites us” - an apparent reference to South African anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu, who said “we are all connected, what unites us is our common humanity”.

ACT campaigned on the need for “honest and bold” conversations on the Treaty of Waitangi, but Seymour would not characterise Thursday’s result as the most significant in his career, or for his party.

“It is not about achievement for ACT, it is about equal rights for every New Zealander.”

A protest hikoi to demonstrate support for the Treaty began in Northland on 14 will land in Wellington early next week. Crowds surged past 10,000 in Rotorua on Friday.