David Seymour: ACT Party leader responds to behaviour from Waitangi Day protesters

ACT's leader doesn't want the Waitangi Trust to face financial repercussions following an intense day at the Treaty grounds.

New Zealand First MP Shane Jones made threatening sounds about Trust funding, after describing some people's behaviour today as a 'circus'.

David Seymour had his microphone taken away twice during his speech - but he says the Trust puts a huge effort into the day.

"It's not them that are ruining it - you know, $10 million to keep the place up to scratch for the whole country, I think we should be a bit wary of blaming them. They're the ones that are trying to make it better." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Things turn pretty heated when politicians turn up at White Tangi. Today,
David Seymour's microphone was taken away halfway through his speech.
Protesters turns their back on him. At one point he's
with me now, minister, hello, hey Ryan. So how did
today go?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
It depends how you measure it. I thought some people
behaved in ways that really let themselves down and unfortunately
gave a bad impression of the Maori world. Others I
thought behave very well. I count amongst them mister Shortland,
who actually brought the microphone back to me twice. And overall,

(00:38):
I think what's important to me at least is that
you know you can take away my microphone, you can
turn your back, you can do award answer in my face,
or whatever you like. At the end of the day,
the one thing I didn't hear was a compelling argument
for why our treaty should not be interpreted as an
agreement that gives us all equal rights under one parliament

(01:01):
that is obliged to uphold all of our rights equally.
And in that sense it was a failure, but it
gives me more encouragement to keep promoting the treaty principles.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Bill Shane Jones seemed to suggest that it would take
some money off them because of the way they behaved.
Is that a bit far?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Look, the one thing I will say about that is
that the White Dungey Trust bought a lot of people
don't realize this, but it's like Cornwall Park in Auckland.
It's not a public things. It's a privately owned piece
of land. It's got a great museum. They keep the
grounds and grant the treaty house the Mariah in great condition,
and they make a huge effort to try and make

(01:41):
this day work. It's not them that are ruining it,
if you know, ten million dollars to keep the place
up to scratch for the whole country. I think we
should be a bit wary of blaming them. But the
other one's trying to make it better.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
David seymore, Happy White Dang You Day.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Happy White Dungey Day You do For more from Hither
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