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20-11-2024
WELLINGTON: An estimated 35,000 people are protesting in New Zealand’s capital against a bill that they say will redefine the country’s founding treaty with the Māori people, police say
Most demonstrators began marching from a Wellington park to the nation’s parliament earlier today, the final leg of a nine-day hikoi, or peaceful protest
The bill seeks to reinterpret the 184-year-old Treaty of Waitangi between British colonizers and Māori people which covers issues like land and cultural rights
The bill’s proponents say it would enable all New Zealanders to have the same rights as Māori people, while critics say it would undermine the rights of indigenous people
Although the bill is unlikely to pass, as it lacks support from some of the government’s coalition partners, critics say it still risks upsetting race relations
The hikoi began last week in the country’s far north some have walked hundreds of kilometres
Wellington’s rail network has seen what might have been its busiest morning ever as the hīkoi poured through the capital, according to the city’s transport chair Thomas Nash.
Nash said that 35,000 – 40,000 people passed through Wellington Railway Station on Tuesday morning, compared to 16,000 -17,000 on an average weekday.
“Very full services, but good vibes,” he wrote in an X post, published just before noon local time.
Two hours later, Nash published another post saying “we’ve had possibly our busiest morning ever on the Wellington rail network for the Hīkoi, with 40,000 people through the railway station.
“Crowd likely at least 50,000,” he wrote. “If you’re heading out of town by train today, make a plan now because trains will only be running until 8:30pm.”
Right outside the Beehive, leaders are addressing the huge crowds in both English and Māori.
Chants of Kill the Bill are met with huge rounds of applause.
There are refugee groups as well as those representing Asian communities – the modern New Zealand that the bill’s proponent David Seymour talks about.
Their view though is that without the founding document remaining as it is, they don’t have a right to live here and they want it to stay the same.
The man behind the bill to overhaul the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi is the leader of the Act Party, David Seymour. Act is a minor party in the ruling coalition. Seymour argues that the country should legally define the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi that over time the treaty’s core values have led to racial divisions, not unity.
“My Treaty Principles Bill says that I, like everybody else, whether their ancestors came here 1,000 years ago, like some of mine did, or just got off the plane at Auckland International Airport this morning to begin their journey as New Zealanders, have the same basic rights and dignity,” he told media.
“Your starting point is to take a human being and ask, what’s your ancestry? What kind of human are you?” adds Seymour who has Māori ancestry himself. “That used to be called prejudice. It used to be called bigotry. It used to be called profiling and discrimination. Now you’re trying to make a virtue of it. I think that’s a big mistake.”
As we’ve been reporting, massive crowds have been taking part in the march in New Zealand’s capital, with many waving flags and chanting slogans in opposition to the proposed Treaty Principles Bill.
The march has covered about 1,000 kilometres over the past nine days, travelling down to Wellington from the country’s northern tip. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
