(Bloomberg) — Protesters took to the streets around New Zealand on Tuesday to denounce the new government’s stance toward indigenous Māori.
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Police said traffic was disrupted in Auckland, causing delays for commuters, and two arrests were made but the protests were peaceful. About 1,000 people gathered in Wellington and marches were held in numerous other towns and cities around the country’s North Island ahead of the reopening of parliament later today, local media reported.
“It is a push-back against this government’s anti-Maori policy program,” Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of the Māori Party Te Pāti Māori, told TVNZ’s Breakfast show. “What it is is an erosion of the rights and interests of Māori.”
The new center-right coalition government, which took office late last month, is reversing policies that gave greater prominence to Māori language and afforded Māori specific rights in legislation, arguing the state shouldn’t give preference on the basis of race.
Government departments and agencies must now be called by their English rather than their Māori name first — Waka Kotahi, for example, will revert to the New Zealand Transport Agency.
The government will abolish the Māori Health Authority, which was established in response to poorer health outcomes among Māori, and review legislation that includes the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, the 1840 agreement between Māori and the British Crown.
The government has also come under heavy criticism for dumping world-leading anti-smoking laws that would have made it illegal for anyone born after 2008 to buy cigarettes. That decision will affect Māori more because they have a higher smoking rate than European New Zealanders.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the protests were “unfair” because the new government was committed to delivering better outcomes for Māori and hadn’t been in office long enough to be judged on its performance.
“I think it’s pretty unfair to be honest,” he told reporters. “The reality is we’ve been in government for a week, we are going to get going and we are going to get things done for Māori and for non-Māori.”
Asked why the Māori names of government departments were being relegated, he said it was simply to “make sure that every New Zealander can navigate their government.”
Police said the vast majority of protest gatherings across the country had dispersed by mid-morning, though there were some smaller groups in several locations continuing to impact traffic.
(Updates with Prime Minister’s comments in eighth paragraph)
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