The architect of the Treaty Principles Bill claims the legislation would improve outcomes for Māori.
Oral submissions were delivered in Parliament, including from ACT's David Seymour himself, experts from the New Zealand Māori Association and Hobson's Pledge members.
Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls said the bill was subject to plenty of backlash - with Te Runanga o Toa Rangatira chief executive Helmut Modlik labelling it a 'race-based dog whistle'.
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Jason Walls joins us now our political editor and the most workiest person in twenty twenty five at Newstalks MBA. You've worked more than everybody else. Jason.
Well, it's about quality as well as quantity, Andrew, and you bring both to the table.
Well, I was talking about quality and quantity when it came to the Treaty Principal's Bill when I opened up the program today, because there's an awful lot of submissions, but how many are on point?
Oh, that's the I mean, it's been a long day in terms of the Treaty Principals submissions. And listen, I'm going to keep it snappy because at this point we all know what the bill is and who is on what side. For example, you know you already know before they open their mouths who all the four people are. For example, David Seymour.
Having a free society where everyone's equal before the law, where you can get a resource of content to build a home for someone or start a business, there is prosperity is good for all people.
And then you've got the Hobson's Pledges having a free society, which is also David Seymour. But I can assure you Hobson's pledge were very for the bill. And then you've got people on the other end of the spectrum in terms of you know, Mari Leader Helmet Modlik.
This Treaty Principles Bill is a constitutional solution looking for a problem.
Fin and then you had submitting on behalf of the New Zealand Barus Sales Association, Chris Finleyson, who says the principles do not describe the relationship between the Crown and tangat Fenawa.
There are principles that could possibly go in a written constitutional though they aren't particularly well drafted, but they don't belong in the Treaty of Waituani Principles Bill.
So a lot of toing and froing and submission started at eight am and they're still going. So there's been a marathon session for James Mega in his Justice Committee. But I'll bring you back to this quote from David Seymour very early this morning, because it was quite cryptic in the way that he said it. Have a listen.
Finally, this bill, some will say, may not pass this time.
We shall see.
But I can tell you that you are part of something important and inevitable.
So that we will see was curious because it's not to pass. The National Party said that they will not be supporting it, and there's a practically zero percent chance that they will change their mind. Because if you thought the Hikhoi was huge in terms of the forty two thousand estimated people that came to Wellington, imagine the size of it if Chris Luxon went back on his word and did support the bill. So I'm not sure what it is that David Seymour is saying there, but the bill will not pass.
Yeah, but he did. He said another quote over the last little while as well, where he said it took people a long time to get their hids around the end of life legislation that he proposed, and similarly, they may take people a long time to get their hids around this Treaty Principal's Bill and Act and legislation that he's proposing.
So you know he is optimistic, yeah, and optimistic he can be. It's good for his brand in terms of the fact that every time the Treaty Principle's Bill is mentioned, his polling tends to slide up a little bit. I mean it does go down as well. But for the whole. I think it's been quite good for him, So it's in his interest to want to keep this debate going as long as possible.
True, and it's also the supporters of this bill will hear that and say if it gets turfed out by National that's not the end of it, and that it is going to be a continuing battle, and so the issue is not going to go away, and you and I will still be discussing it for some months still to come.
She's I hope not. I'm done with it. I'm so sick of it.
Sorry. I was about to say, if not years and possibly decades, so then.
We go, I know, don't do that to me, right.
Nicola Willis made some statements of Wellington Airport today. We'll talk about that in a few moments time. But she has also indicated that certainly the sale of state owned assets are not off the table.
Indeed, Yeah, it was an interesting comment by her because privatization was that, you'll remember a key theme from David Seymour's speech on Friday, and I'm sure doubt you're no doubt aware of that. It has fully reignited the debate around asset sales in New Zealand, which has got the usual suspects all up in arms about it. It's in fact, the Green Party has written a letter to the Prime Minister to quote put this issue to bed once and for all by him ruling out states or the sale of public service. This is in key infrastructure. They feel like the Prime Minister's not been entirely truthful in this debate, especially given this interaction in the House in October last year.
Are the government's choices to underfund critical infrastructure like our hospitals, our schools and our theories essentially just setting them up to fail to pave the way for an eventual sell off of these crucial assets that we all own.
The members in a very dark and conspiratorial mood today, I just say, I don't know that.
We have no plans to do any asset sales.
So we have no plans to do any asset sales. But contrast that with what Nikola Willis said just this afternoon. For some context, she was asked about a piece of work the Treasure is undertaken to draw up a proposed statement of sale for state owned enterprises owned by the Crown. Here's what she said when asked about the progress of this work.
We have asked the Treasury to look at the assets the government owns and ask itself whether we're doing a good job managing them, why we own them, and whether they're delivering well to their purpose. And they have identified some areas where they think that the entity is no longer delivering as well as it should to its purpose and where we should consider other ways of managing that seat and getting more from it. And we will have more to say about NASH.
So that does not sound very in line with that.
We have no plans to do any sse at sales.
In fact, Nicola Willis actually went further when she was asked about a line in David Seymour's speech about Quotable Value, which is a company owned by QVO, owned by guess mate.
I'm talking to it right after six, so I'll put that to it, and I thank you for your time today, mister worker Jason Walls.
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