“ACT is calling out Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Deborah Ngarewa-Packer for flagrant misinformation on the Treaty and ACT’s policies,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“This morning on TVNZ Breakfast, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said that ACT is ‘anti-treaty’ and ‘anti-Māori.’ She goes on to suggest ACT would not honour Treaty settlements.
“New Zealand deserve honest healthy debate on our future, and our constitutional settings as a country. We have a right to debate whether New Zealand’s future lies with co-government and different rights based on ancestry, or whether we want to be a modern, multi-ethnic liberal democracy where every Kiwi has the same rights.
“Ngarewa-Packer says ACT is anti-Māori, an absurd claim when four of our top twenty candidates, and three sitting MPs are themselves Māori. What Ngarewa-Packer is really saying is that you can’t be Māori if you don’t agree with her.
“Ngarewa-Packer said that under ACT, ‘every [treaty] settlement that’s been enacted is not full and final.’ The misinformation is appalling, ACT has supported every Treaty settlement bill in parliament, and I frequently say that the Treaty settlement process is a triumph that should be respected.
“She also says that ACT is ‘anti te tiriti,’ however ACT consistently uses te tiriti, the Māori language version, to base its policies on. The ultimate effect of ACT’s proposal to legislate the Treaty Principles and hold a referendum on them is to further embed te tiriti into New Zealand’s constitutional settings.
“Far from being anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, or anti-settlement, ACT is in favour of all three. It is time to call out those pedalling misinformation about party policies, starting with Te Pait Māori’s flagrant and divisive rhetoric about ACT. They need to accept that people of all backgrounds have the right to honest, healthy debate about the future of our country.”