Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on over 400 Christian leaders penning a letter against the Treaty Principles Bill

Hundreds of Christian organisations have questioned the Treaty Principles Bill.

More than 400 groups penned an open letter to the Government, warning the ACT Party Bill to redefine te Tiriti principles is divisive.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says the churches need to stick to preaching to their congregations - but they clearly don't see it that way. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Very so A b our senior political correspondence with us.
Hey Barry, good afternoon. He so, what did you make
of all of the clergy coming out in opposition to
the Treaty Principals Bill.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, you know, I mean, I just think the clergy
should be clergy, And even though they'll say that, look
it was the clergyman of this country that took the
treaty around other tribes to be signed in eighteen forty.
I really think that politics should be out of the
hands of the churches. It should be over to the

(00:30):
politicians to do politics and the churches to do the
preaching to the congregations. But that's clearly not the case.
They don't see it that way. They say that they've
got an absolute right to do so. I went through
the list of the clergymen that had signed up to
this and they are all the senior clergy in the country.
There's no doubt about that. But look, this is a

(00:52):
very difficult situation for this government, there's no doubt about that.
But this is the problem with coalition politics that Christopher
Luxen to form a government had to agree to some
compromise with David Seymour, who would like a referendum on
the Treaty Principals Bill, which the draft form went to

(01:14):
Cabinet today. But you know more than that, Luxon wasn't
prepared to prepared to go along with and to me,
as I've said right from the very start, this is
an absolute waste of parliamentary time taxed by his money.
Because the bill will be debated in November and Parliament

(01:38):
to its first reading, it will then go to a
select committee. There is a way of stopping it from
going to a select committee, but obviously they're not going
to do that, so it'll go to a select committee.
That's where the real debate will take place, and indeed
clergyman will be able to put their point of view there.
But I've got to say Chris Luckson, when the draft

(01:59):
went before Cabinet today, he wasn't telling us how the
discussion went and how what the draft bill looked like.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
I don't talk or discuss things that are discussed in cabinet.
There'll be more to say about that shortly, I'm sure.
But our position on this as well, no and well understood,
will supported to first reading, but not beyond that. But again,
you know, David seam will have more to say about
it shortly, as you know, our positions well understood and
you know that's that's that's nothing's changed, and that we go.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
I think David Seema was going to say more to
you shortly. Isn't it more than that?

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Have you heard? Apparently he has made a change to
what everybody is expecting. Have you heard this?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Oh well, I'm sure right from the beginning that Seymour
was going to try and make it more palatable to
the general public and more palatable particularly to the National
Party and the New Zealand First one.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yes, and he had he had sort of indicated, I
mean this is not news. He had indicated that he
was going to change Article two, which is the second
principle about the chieftainship of the last and that he
thought that that may get the NATS across the line.
But from judging by lux and the broken record today, no,
it's still going to become.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Really difficult, you know, I mean Luxon can't now do
an about turn because they've painted themselves into a very
tight corner. Not only lucks and says New Zealand First,
but then it's to be expected from New Zealand first
because they don't like David.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Semol Yeah okay, yeap, very grown up. Hey, what did
you make of this revelation today that about sixty seven
Health New Zealand staff were forced to sign gag orders?

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Well, you know, lot, there's a dictate in the public
service that see, public servants are not able or not
allowed to speak publicly about what goes on within the
public service, and that's by law. But you know these
NDA's or non disclosure agreements, they're not They're nothing new.

(03:56):
And what it says to me more than anything else,
is that the public service and the division between it
and the government is great because the government is peering
back on the public service. So there's no doubt that
there are many public servants working there that would like
to pimp on the government. And you know they're not
being given the opportunity too, but they will still do

(04:19):
it as we've seen.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yes, but why do they need to sign a non
disclosure agreement if they already are supposed to be carried Well,
they're meant to be.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
But you know, under the old Official Secrets Act they
had to basically anything that left their desk had to
be confidential. Then in nineteen eighty two. Of course, the
Official Information Act came along, and any one of us
can apply to get information out of the government, but

(04:47):
we don't have to or they don't have to comply anyway,
because they can still release redacted reports, which is what
they do invariably, but the Ombudsman is the final arborter
of that. So you know, I think this is a
storm and a tea cup to be perfectly honest.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Okay, Barry, thank you appreciate it. That's very supersing your
political correspondence.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
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Speaker 1 (05:11):
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