Hipkins Changes Diary To Vote Down Treaty Principles Bill Says PM Should Do The Same

Giles
Dexter, Political Reporter

Labour leader
Chris Hipkins has changed his diary in order to speak at the
second reading of the Treaty Principles Bill, and says the
Prime Minister should do the same.

The bill will be
debated on Thursday, with National and New Zealand First set
to vote against it.

Christopher Luxon and Chris
Hipkins are usually away from Parliament on Thursdays, doing
visits elsewhere in New Zealand.

Hipkins said he moved
his diary on Monday night so he would be able to speak at
Thursday’s debate.

At his post-Cabinet media
conference on Monday, Luxon said his absence was “a function
of schedule,” and denied the bill was deliberately set down
for a day where he would not be at Parliament.

“We’ve
got a programme, and that’s the day that it’s going to, and
frankly it’s more important that it comes to the House and
it’s voted down, from my point of view, than me having to be
there or not,” he said.

Hipkins said Luxon’s absence
was a “cowardly manoeuvre,” and accused him of running
away.

“The Prime Minister signed New Zealand up to
this debate. I think him running away from it shows a total
lack of leadership. I think he should front up, he should
explain why he agreed to this debate in the first place, and
he should articulate why it is that the National Party are
now voting against it,” he said.

Supporting the bill
to the Select Committee stage was part of National and ACT’s
coalition agreement. Luxon has called the bill “divisive”
and promised National would vote it down at second
reading.

ACT wanted the bill to go to a public
referendum, but the two parties reached a
compromise.

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka
said he was unsure if he would be speaking on the bill,
saying it was up to the party whips to decide.

But he
said he was looking forward to seeing the bill voted
down.

“I’m looking forward to the cremation, and of
course the nehu day, the burial day, for the Treaty
Principles Bill.”

Labour’s Māori Development
spokesperson Willie Jackson said it was good to hear
Potaka’s opposition, but he wished he had voiced it
earlier.

He said Potaka should also speak at the
second reading, as he did not speak at the
first.

“This has been one of the most divisive bills
in our history,” Jackson said.

In November, National
put up Paul Goldsmith, Louise Upston, Scott Simpson, and
James Meager to speak at the first reading.

Last week,
the Justice Committee reported back on the bill, and
recommended it not pass. Of the 300,000 written submissions
on the bill, 90 percent were opposed.

Potaka
acknowledged there was a constituency that believed in the
bill, but the submissions process had shown that
constituency was “narrow.”

On Friday, ACT leader and
Associate Justice Minister David Seymour said he believed
the weight of submissions was not proportional to public
opinion, pointing to the End of Life Choice Bill, which was
opposed by submitters but passed when it went to a
referendum.

“If people believe that the public don’t
support this, they should not be opposed to having a
referendum on it. If people really believe that most New
Zealanders don’t want Parliament to be sovereign, don’t want
our rights all to be equal, let’s have a referendum and see
how people vote,” he
said.

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