The Green Party is urgently calling on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to abandon the Treaty Principles Bill following reports it will be introduced on Thursday.

“It’s not too late to do the right thing, Christopher. It’s time to abandon this Bill and honour Te Tiriti,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Justice, Tamatha Paul.

“Te Tiriti forms the founding agreement Aotearoa was built upon. It provides the foundations for an enduring relationship between tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti that ensures everybody is looked after and nobody is left behind.

“Te Tiriti is permanent, Governments are temporary. Honouring the Treaty has to come before the honouring of coalition agreements.

“At Waitangi, Christopher Luxon told Māori that Te Tiriti was our past, present and future. At the tangi of Kiingi Tuuhetia, he spoke to the importance of kotahitanga and the need to honour the legacy of the late Kiingi. If his words are actually worth anything, he would not allow legislation that aims to completely corrupt and defile the defining essence of our nation anywhere near our Parliament.

“It is high time that his rhetoric matched the reality of his actions when it comes to Te Tiriti. He has stood by and watched as Treaty protections were removed from state care, as the Māori Health Authority was scrapped and as Māori wards were essentially erased.

“The Prime Minister has two choices: abandon the Bill and honour our founding agreement or unleash a level of division and disharmony that will cut to the very core of our country.

“We call on the Prime Minister to do the right thing and uphold the dignity, meaning and integrity of our founding agreement,” says Tamatha Paul.

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