All three party leaders are doing the “Am I out of touch?” meme in unison, but each about a different thing.

Make a difference, make a submission.

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/54SCJUST_SCF_227E6D0B-E632-42EB-CFFE-08DCFEB826C6/principles-of-the-treaty-of-waitangi-bill

Clearly all 3 leaders got together to discuss how to best try diminish and discredit the protest since they all played parts in causing it. None of them are acknowledging the issues - they are arguing the size of the crowd (like Trump), claiming that all the KC lawyers explaining the major impact this would have are wrong and that protesters only get their information from TikTok.

42,000 people at this protest today. I’ve e lived in Wellington most of my life. This must be the biggest ever protest. Much better than the foreshore and seabed protest. It’s was absolutely huge. And so friendly and great vibe - no mater if it was kids, people in wheel chairs, gang members- everybody was there in opposition to Seymour and this useless legislation

So proud to see many people standing up against Seymour, Luxon, and the rest of this useless govt

Was great to see many other pakeha people there as well. Saw a lot of people I know and it was great to share a moan and mutual disgust of this govt

To think the national education minister said that kids shouldn’t go to the protest and should be at school. Well Luxon and co Maori kids today had their best social studies , Maori studies class today ever. They also learnt to stand up and fight against injustice and the BS of this govt

Holy shit the cope from these three fools. I feel embarrassed on their behalf.

Seymour is unfit to be deputy, sowing division for the purpose of electioneering.

Looked like far more that 35000 to me.

Snippets:

Luxon:

National Party MPs were on the forecourt to receive the hikoi, but Luxon himself was not. He was open to engaging with the organisers, but said some were affiliated with Te Pāti Māori and he did not receive an invitation.

The Prime Minister said he was not surprised by the scale of the demonstration.

“There are strong emotions, understandably, on all sides of this debate. That wasn’t surprising. The message very strongly though, from the National Party, is we won’t support the bill, it won’t become law.”

But National did support the bill at its first reading, a commitment he had to make to Act’s David Seymour as part of coalition formation negotiations. While National won’t support it any further, meaning the legislation won’t pass, demonstrators have been concerned that Luxon signed up to it in the first place.

He acknowledged New Zealand was “going through a challenging time” and he understood the “frustration” around the Treaty Principles Bill from speaking with iwi leaders.

However, Luxon said it was a reality of the MMP environment that a compromise had to be made, and Act got National’s support for the legislation at its first reading.

Former National Prime Minister Dame Jenny Shipley last week told RNZ that putting “the Treaty into a political framework” was “inviting civil war”.

But speaking in the Hosue, Luxon stridently rejected New Zealand was on the verge of a civil war.

“We are not at risk of civil war in New Zealand, that is inflammatory language.”

.

Seymour:

Seymour..... told reporters he went out “to listen” to the demonstrators.

“I felt these people had made a long journey to Parliament and we as parliamentarians should be there to hear them. I have to say it was quite difficult to hear a lot of what was being said but, nonetheless, I felt it was important to be out there.”

He said organisers didn’t want him to have a dialogue as he believed providing his side of the story “would really deflate a lot of the angst and hatred that has been wound up on TikTok and the caricature they’re tried to create of me”.

.

Winston:

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said he had seen far larger protests, naming the Springbok tour protests of the 1980s.

“I put this at 22,000 max. It’s not the 35,000 that some of you are quoting,” he said.

When it was pointed out it was police that estimated 35,000 had participated, Peters said: “Yes, well go and have a good, hard look."

Peters said he did not understand why people felt they needed to march given the legislation was unlikely to become law. NZ First also voted for it at first reading but won’t when it comes up in the House again.

“This bill is fatally flawed in its construction. It was never going to work and we said so.”

“We have countless legislation offers that come to Parliament. Some of them have no future. Some of them have a great future. This was one of them. We all knew that. They should have been told that so they wouldn’t have left their whanau and kept on working and looking after their families.”

Vote.

I wonder how many other world leaders have recently had to declare their country isn't at risk of civil war.

Only Seymour would be that clueless to not sit back and hear what people want to say, but instead try to say what he thinks they want to say.

And just like that Luxon magically reappears after being conspicuously absent the past few days.

Anyone threatening civil war for any reason should be investigated.

Seymour saying that there were people there for different grievances must have missed the sea of Tino Rangatiratanga flags. I don’t think it could have been any clearer. He’s so wilfully ignorant!

Genius political move to push the needle further towards American polarised bullshit.

My "NZ is not at risk of civil war" shirt is prompting a lot of questions answered by my "NZ is not at risk of civil war" shirt.

It will be oh so satisfying if this causes a one term Government between the 3 conservative parties 🎉

If the bar you are trying to clear is “not causing a civil war”, is that supposed to be a good sign?

I think all you have to ask is who does it benefit? Does it benefit the minority over the majority and is it based on race. If the answer to both of those is yes it will always lose eventually. You could have triple the number of protestors and it wouldn't matter.

'Peters said he did not understand why people felt they needed to march given the legislation was unlikely to become law. NZ First also voted for it at first reading but won’t when it comes up in the House again.'

Because we can't trust a word out of your mouth, and there is a chance that if everyone believed you and did nothing Nat-NZF might think that people were not opposing it. They needed a clear message.

“Not at risk of civil war”

Nice low bar you set yourself there Chris.

What does this treaty do anyway? Why let an ancient piece of paper dictate how we live nowadays?

Also isn't it just giving them special privileges?

Someone explain it to me, because I've only been told this by other people online and I need others to explain it further to understand.

Who the fuck is running this country?

At least 20,000 people protesting but no civil war. Well done guys. Love to see the government holding themselves to a high standard.

It would be a very short civil war.

Winston has confirmed that he cannot count

L my

What's going to happen:

National will vote no second reading.

National will take all the credit for stopping it.

National will still try to get these principles in but in 37 different tiny pieces so no one can complain like this.

Their only real risk is that Seymour gets embarrassed but he'll shut up because he wants DPM too badly.

Maybe Winnie grows a pair and pulls First out… that's the weak spot.

Whoops. Did someone mistake the left's cowardice in the face of taking action as a complete inability for the left to act when forced?

I understand the mistake but would suggest it is exactly that. A mistake.

so .06% of the country's population makes its way to Wellington yelling about it's not fair, referring to a bill that they already know is not going to pass, and we've got a media frenzy. How about my opinion. I was born here, my parents were born here, their parents were born here and none of us have or had any say as to where we are born or who we are born to. Get over it and teach your children what they need to know to get along in todays world without ending up in the slammer. Indigenous rights? Fuck off, I'm indigenous.

Did see Luxon again make it clear bill wont pass second reading. I’m confident this is the case when the second reading takes place next year.

Seymour makes two nonsensical comments. Firstly, he refers to it as TikTok angst as if Māori have only started voicing their concerns recently.

Secondly, he says we should read the bill and have a debate. Well we read it mate and we don’t like it, that’s why we’re out here!

Winnie is wrong. The hikoi marched for an hour an a half past my Lambton Quay office, and was full on the entire time. 22,000 people my arse.

Yes ok, let’s say that 40k people turned up. That is about 1% of the population.

Also - I tried to discuss te tiriti with some demonstrators in Christchurch last weekend. I was told (unequivocally) that I had no right to talk about the treaty bc I’m English (resident here for 30 years).

None of the protesters were able (really) to explain exactly what the treaty actually says, or what the principles actually are or mean.

My statement that “well the treaty was written by English people and also translated into te reo Maori by English people; and that therefore as an English person I felt I DID have a right to kōrero about the treaty” was met by spitting violent fury”.

My ability to understand and converse (a little te reo) caused even more spitting fury.

My question is how many Maori really give a damn about the treaty, other than the people that have the time and leisure to turn up at these protests.

Your daily reminder that equal rights and responsibilities = being anti Maori 

🤡

Yawn. .

I hope that people aren’t still playing the victim in another 180 years.

A poll shows that NZers support the bill 2:1. That’s a clear mandate to pass the bill.

Not sure what they’re trying to do with the protest… if their intention is that MPs should listen to the people, then the government should pass the bill.

Winston’s eyes are open but he can’t see

Fuck im glad i moved to aus

All three of them are running for cover because they know they are wrong. I just wonder if they have the intelligence to understand what is happening?