The comparison of new Māori ward legislation with apartheid South Africa by the ACT Party has been labelled offensive and insulting.
ACT Party leader David Seymour. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Legislation which will make it easier for local bodies to establish Māori wards passed its third and final reading at Parliament last night.
In the past, local referendums - when called for by 5 or more percent of voters - could overturn a council decision to introduce Māori wards. The new legislation has removed this.
ACT Party leader David Seymour said it should be called the "apartheid bill", because it would give "people a different set of rights based on what their ethnicity is".
"If New Zealand goes down the track of having a different set of laws for people based on their race, we are going to end up with division and resentment and that is the same principle that talk New Zealand down a very dark path," Seymour said.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davison has labelled Seymour's comments "insulting".
"The fact that he is trying to smear this incredible Te Tiriti-upholding piece of legislation with the incredible hurt that has happened in apartheid countries is so insulting I don't even want to give too much further time to it."