The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House to request a conscience vote on the Treaty Principles Bill on both first reading and the select committee referral motion.
The party’s co-leader, Chlöe Swarbrick made the announcement in Parliament as tens of thousands of Māori were mobilising across the country to oppose the bill.
“This is huge,” Swarbrick said. Two of her party’s MPs, MPs Teanau Tuiono and Huhana Lyndon, are taking part in the hikoi.
“[The] atmosphere is incredible, people unifying around a vision for what our country could be if we worked together; tāngata whenua, tāngata tiriti. And I think that is the hope that we want to walk forward as opposed to this unnecessary fight."
Swarbrick described the bill as a “divisive waste of time cooked up in secret back rooms by three men”.
“We have huge issues as a country, we have the greatest rates of wealth inequality on record, we have a housing crisis, the planet is on fire, every month or so we are confronted with a new climate change-charged weather event, especially in regional Aotearoa New Zealand, so this is the biggest waste of time for all of us to be pouring our energy into for the next few months.”
She said it was time for the 123 MPs to take personal individual responsibility on whether the Treaty Principles Bill went any further.
During the election campaign National said it wouldn‘t support this bill but it became part of the coalition agreement with ACT. Then, at Koroneihana, Luxon said the bill wouldn’t go past the first reading.
If MPS were free to conscience-vote, Swarbrick said she was confident they would vote the legislation down.
Green MP Tamatha Paul has been organising for when the hīkoi arrives at Parliament. She said it was going to be big and historic and she wanted to keep everyone safe.
Paul affirmed that the hīkoi was peaceful and, when asked if David Seymour should show his face, she encouraged him and others to front the crowd.
