New Zealand is up in arms over Maori rights bill

A controversy is brewing in New Zealand, as thousands of Kiwis recently took to the streets to protest a bill that would legally define the country's founding treaty — a change that opponents say would strip fundamental rights from the nation's Indigenous Maori people.

The bill is unlikely to pass, as it does not have enough support in New Zealand's Parliament to be enacted into law. This has not stopped opponents, including white New Zealanders and Maori New Zealanders, from warning about the bill's potential consequences, which they say are emblematic of a rightward shift in one of the world's most progressive countries.

What would the bill do?

Known as the Treaty Principles Bill, the legislation argues that New Zealand should reinterpret and legally lay out the doctrine of the Treaty of Waitangi. Signed in 1840 between Maori leaders and British colonialists, this treaty "enshrines principles of co-governance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders" and is "considered one of the country's founding documents," said CNN.

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The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in two languages, English and Maori, and "each contains differing language that has long sparked debate over how the treaty is defined and interpreted," said CNN. This includes differing interpretations of Indigenous autonomy and rights. To rectify this, the Treaty Principles Bill would define the treaty for all New Zealanders. But opponents say this "strikes at the core of the country's founding principles and dilutes the rights of Maori people."

How have New Zealanders reacted?

The proposal has caused backlash on both sides of Parliament after it was introduced by David Seymour, the leader of the right-wing ACT New Zealand Party. Seymour "says that misinterpretations of the treaty's meaning have effectively given Maori people special treatment. The bill calls for an end to 'division by race,'" said Al Jazeera. This has inflamed New Zealand's racial tensions, with thousands of people protesting in a walk across the country's North Island.

The bill is "widely opposed — by left- and right-wing former prime ministers, 40 of the country's most senior lawyers, and thousands of Maori and non-Maori New Zealanders," said The Associated Press. Many critics see the bill as a "desire to reverse decades of policies that aimed to empower Maori, who make up around 20% of the 5.3 million population but have higher levels of deprivation and incarceration and worse health outcomes than the broader population" said Reuters.

What comes next?

The bill does not have the votes needed in Parliament to become law. The protesters are cognizant of this and are mainly angry at the symbolism they say the bill represents. The bill is a "huge sense of betrayal" and "nothing more than us having to defend that we exist," said Debbie Ngarewa-Packe, the co-leader of New Zealand's Te Pāti Maori Party.

New Zealand now "bears little resemblance to the country recently led by Jacinda Ardern, whose brand of compassionate, progressive politics made her a global symbol of anti-Trump liberalism," said The New York Times. And while New Zealand has long been "celebrated for elevating the status of Maori," the country's conservative faction has "challenged their rights and the prominence of their culture and language in public life, driving a wedge into New Zealand society."

Many white New Zealanders "grew disenchanted with government efforts to address disadvantages faced by Maori," said the Times, leaving an opening for the country to shift to the right on the issue. "I cannot recall a time in my adult life when there has been as much anger and hostility and emotion that has been created by central government decisions as now," Richard Shaw, a politics professor at New Zealand's Massey University, said to the Times.