Thousands of Maori protesters took to the streets across New Zealand on Tuesday morning, protesting new government policies that Maori say will undermine decades of local progress.
Protesters blocked traffic on major roads and lined the streets in towns and cities as they called on the coalition to scrap plans to review the Treaty of Waitangi, the country’s 180-year-old founding document signed between the Crown and Maori chiefs.
The new government recently announced it would roll back the use of the Māori language in government institutions, and repeal anti-smoking legislation and the Māori Health Authority at a time when health problems, including lung cancer, disproportionately affect Māori.
The protests were organized by Te Pati Māori, a Māori political party that expanded its seats in Parliament from two to six in the October election. Today also marks the opening of the 54th New Zealand Government.
“We will not accept being second-class citizens and being relegated to the background by this government,” Te Pati Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer told The Guardian after a protest in Wellington where nearly a thousand people marched on Parliament House.
“Our people are very interested in this government, in the abolition of this kaupapa [policy] She added that this benefited Maori, and described the Treaty of Waitangi as the basis for previous policies that benefited Maori.
During rush hour in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, protesters gathered at main entry points on the highway waving Maori flags and carrying signs, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. Local media reports. Several protesters then got into cars and formed a procession downtown. Protesters also turned out in dozens of smaller centers such as Rotorua, where… 400 demonstrators marched on the city’s main street.
“All the gains we’ve had to beg for are about to be set back 50 years, and we’re going to have to try again,” said Melody Te Pato Wilkie, 52, who organized the protests in the west coast town of New Plymouth. It was expected that 40 demonstrators would attend. Instead, about 400 people showed up.
“I’m doing this for my mokopuna [grandchildren] “Those who are too young to have a voice for themselves,” said Te Patu Wilki, a grandmother of six.
The new government, a coalition of the National, Law and New Zealand First parties, said it would review the Treaty of Waitangi and allow Parliament to debate whether the nation should hold a referendum on shared governance with Maori.
A referendum on shared governance was a key policy of ACT, a liberal party, now one of three parties in the ruling coalition. However, during the election campaign, Christopher Luxon, New Zealand’s current Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative National Party, said a referendum on shared governance would be “divisive and unhelpful”.
Law leader David Seymour described the protests as a “sad day” for democracy in New Zealand. He said in a statement that a referendum was needed to ensure a healthy debate about whether our future lay in shared government and different rights based on descent, or whether we wanted to become a modern, multi-racial liberal democracy where every New Zealander lives. “She has the same rights.”
Te Pati Māori protested inside Parliament as MPs came forward individually to swear allegiance to King Charles III, New Zealand’s head of state. In a break from protocol, all six Te Pati Māori MPs first swore their loyalty to their descendants under the Treaty of Waitangi before going on to pledge their loyalty to King Charles.
Members of Parliament are legally required to pledge allegiance to the New Zealand Head of State before performing their roles as representatives in Parliament. At the start of New Zealand’s last government in 2020, Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of Te Pati Māori, objected to the lack of a Treaty of Waitangi section.
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