Summarised by Centrist
According to journalist Graham Adams, Māori nationalists, along with political and cultural elites, are concerned about the coalition government’s counter-revolution against race-based policies.
They fear it will dismantle co-governance frameworks in health, education, and local government, which were “stealthily” implemented during former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s term.
These developments echo the collapse of unionism in the 1990s, where overreach led to a swift downfall, and for the same reasons.
However, Adams notes that: “Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, however, is a different sort of threat altogether. It represents an existential challenge to the Treaty Project that has been running for the past 50 years under the aegis of the professional managerial class, with the complicity of the judiciary.”
He argues that Seymour has a strong understanding of the public mood, as shown by the ruling class’s “panicked, almost hysterical reaction” to the idea of a national debate or referendum on Treaty principles. Their response implies they fear Seymour may be correct, “even as they deny it.”
Adams also makes the astute comment that “there is a delicious irony that opponents to his principles bill, who were always ready to ask solicitously when Ardern was Prime Minister, ‘What exactly scares you about co-governance?’ are now being asked, ‘What scares you about a national debate or referendum on the Treaty principles?’
