David Seymour. Photo: RNZ / Reece Baker
ACT leader David Seymour - the architect of the government's proposed Treaty Principles Bill - has welcomed a Waitangi Tribunal report, despite it recommending the idea be abandoned.
Waitangi Tribunal chair Caren Fox said the bill and a proposed review of Treaty clauses - put forward by New Zealand First - were part of a pattern of the Crown using Parliament's policy process against Māori.
However, Seymour saw the report as a contribution to the national conversation he had long been calling for.
"We need a national conversation about our founding document. Are there two classes of New Zealanders in partnership, each with different rights? Or are we a modern democracy where all citizens have equal rights?"
Seymour said he looked forward to having that discussion over the next several months.
"My fundamental question is this: where are the successful societies that treat people differently based on their ancestry? Many of the worst events in history came from treating humans based on their membership of a group.
"If the Treaty is a partnership between the Crown and only Māori, what is the place of a non-Māori child born today? Are they born into second-class citizenship where some public positions are not available to them because they have the wrong ancestors?
It was time to cast off the "divisive notion that the Treaty is a partnership between two classes of New Zealanders each with different rights", Seymour said.
"It is not only untrue, it is incompatible with the fundamental democratic value that all citizens are equal under the law."