The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement.

“The Treaty Principles Bill is dead. Our movement for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice lives on,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson.

“Instead of dividing and conquering, this Bill has backfired and united communities across the motu in solidarity for our founding agreement and what it represents.

“Te Tiriti o Waitangi offers us a blueprint for a future where everyone thrives and nobody is left behind, including Papatūānuku. This is the sentiment we saw in the tens of thousands who flooded the streets, we heard it in the drove of submissions to Parliament, and we can feel it in this new generation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice.

“Hapū, iwi, te Tiriti o Waitangi experts, reo Māori experts, legal experts, historians, community organisers – tangata whenua mai, tagata moana mai, tangata tiriti mai, tauiwi mai – submitted and stood in opposition to this Bill. Ninety per cent of submitters rejected this attempt to re-write our history and erase Māori from it.

“This Government is clearly out of touch with the very essence of Aotearoa. History will judge Christopher Luxon for his lack of leadership and accountability to our founding agreement. His absence today speaks volumes.

“The vast majority of us in Aotearoa know that we are here by the mana of te Tiriti o Waitangi, and will work to protect that mana in every way we can.

“Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua. Whatungarongaro te kāwanatanga, toitū te Tiriti o Waitangi. People will disappear, while the land remains. While governments come and go, te Tiriti o Waitangi is forever,” said Marama Davidson.

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