David Seymour: Act Party leader on Treaty Principles submissions closing tonight

David Seymour says he's anticipating a high volume of submissions on his Treaty Principles Bill, closing at midnight tonight. 

The bill passed its first reading last year, and is set to go through the Select Committee process. 

National and New Zealand First have promised to vote it down. 

The Act leader says he's been told 15,000 submissions were received within the first 10 days. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
It was probably the most hotly debated or should I say,
shouted about piece of legislation of twenty twenty four, the
Treaty Principal's Bill. Submissions on the bill closed at midnight tonight,
so if you haven't had your say and you want
to want to, then get it on your to do
list for today. The man behind the bill is, of course,
ACT Party leader David Seymour.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Good morning, morning term.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
By the way, we had a report from one of
our journalists that there's been some issues today with people
accessing the online submission process. Have you any information on that.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Look, I did actually have someone email me earlier this
morning saying that that had some sort of breakdown on
the website. But if you go to the Justice Select
Committee website and you just type into google Justice Select
Committee New Zealand, it will take you to the page
and there's an email address. You can send your submission

(01:09):
straight there if you don't do it through the Parliament
website page there, so you know, if in doubt you
can always email it. But sometimes someone has a problem.
That doesn't mean it's going to be for everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Okay, Any idea how submissions? How many submissions have been received?

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, I was just talking to someone who is on
the Justice Select Committee and they said they didn't know
the latest, but they understood there were fifteen thousand within
the first ten days. So I would expect that there
will be a lot. I know that there are people
with all sorts of views on the bill have been
encouraging the people they know to go and make a submission,

(01:49):
and I think that's really healthy. Whether or not you
agree with my bill or not, you have to admit
that the discussion about what the treaty really means has
been democratized in a way that I've not seen before
in our country's debate over this issue.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Are you hopeful some good ideas will come out of
the settling Committee processybe that might even give rise tweaking
any of the clauses.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah? Absolutely. You know I've said all along, anyone who
takes a position before the Select Committee reports back is
not really listening to the submitters. And the whole point
of this is that everybody has to live under our
constitutional framework. Everyone should have a say about whether where
a liberal democracy would equal rights for all or something

(02:35):
else with maybe different sovereignties and different constitutional rights based
on ancestry. Now that's an important question, and if you
believe that we should listen to the people, then of
course I too am happy to look at Well maybe
something will come out of it, We can learn something
and tweak the bill or improve it in some way.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well yeah, well good luck with that. Just quickly before
we go. I don't know if you've caught up with
the news that two former prime ministers, including Christopher Luxon,
were not permitted to speak at the Maria for the
Tongue of Dame Tariana because they don't speak Mari. Shane
Jones has ripped into this. I sort of feel I
need to discuss it with a bit of nuance, given

(03:14):
that someone's tonguey. But what's your take on that? Do
you think that's a bit strange?

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Well, yes, I read the story and first of all,
I absolutely defend the right. It's their marai, it's you know,
their person's tongueing, it's their rules. Just as if you
went to any funeral in New Zealand and expected to
speak the people conducting the funeral have every right to
decide whether or not you can speak, so they've got

(03:43):
every right to do it. But I think also, you know,
people make choices and others can make up their mind
what they think of that. I would have thought that
if you were committed to a New Zealand where we
all get along and everybody feels that they have equal rights,
as three former prime ministers showed up and they wanted

(04:04):
to speak in one of the official languages and pay
tribute to a great stateswoman, then you'd on the side
of well, yes, of course, by all means, go for it.
I mean, that's that's how I would do it. I
respect the rights of you know, they didn't want to
do it that way, but that's how I would have
done it. And I just also make the pointless, you know,
I suspect the people behind that decision would be very

(04:26):
insistent that it's okay to speak in today Maori at
any kind of occasion. If it was the other way
around and it had been insisted that all speeches were
given only in English and Mary despite being an official language,
was not acceptable, I think that the same people would
be very upset. So look, I respect their right to

(04:47):
do it, but there's a few reasons why you know,
it's not the choice I would have made.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Excellent. Hey, thanks very much for your time. That's David Seymour,
ak Party Leader.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
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