Over 40,000 people protest outside New Zealand's parliament over controversial Maori rights bill

More than 40,000 people have been protesting outside New Zealand's parliament on Tuesday (Nov. 19), opposing a bill that seeks to dilute the rights of Maori people and threatens to set race relations back by decades.

The controversial bill seeks to reinterpret the country's founding document between British colonisers and Māori people.

Today's protest marked the end of a nine-day hīkoi, or peaceful protest, in the country.

The police said that around 42,000 people gathered at parliament, where the Treaty Principles Bill was introduced earlier this month by legislators who would want to reinterpret an 184-year-old treaty signed between the British and the indigenous Maori.

The protest was one of the biggest in New Zealand's history, with many protesters draped in colours of the Maori flag.

The bill, however, is not likely to pass into law, but the discussion and the division are set to continue, and it will take another six months for a second reading.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it would not pass into law, despite the fact that he is part of the same coalition as Act.

"Our position as the National Party is unchanged. We won't be supporting the bill beyond the second reading, and therefore it won't become law," Luxon said, according to the New Zealand Herald.

"We don't think through the stroke of a pen you go rewrite 184 years of debate and discussion," he added.

Last week, New Zealand's parliament was briefly suspended after the controversial Maori bill triggered a haka dance protest, raging debate, and personal attacks.

As parliamentarians gathered for a preliminary vote on the bill, Te Pati Maori (Maori Party) MPs stood up and began the traditional Maori dance, haka.

MP for Hauraki Waikato, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, began the haka after tearing the bill in the parliament.

Watch | New Zealand: Thousands rally against bill undermining indigenous rights

In an intense scene, the Māori haka briefly halted New Zealand MPs from casting their votes on the Treaty Principles Bill, igniting powerful reactions and concluding a fiery debate.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of Te Pāti Māori (Maori Party) said, "We can’t live equally if we have one people who are the indigenous people living ‘less than’,” she argued. What the coalition government is doing is “an absolute attempt to divide an otherwise progressive country and it’s really embarrassing."

"To see it in parliament, in the highest house in Aotearoa, there’s been a real state of surprise and I think disappointment and sadness that in 2024 when we see politics and the Trump extremes, this is what the Māori are having to endure,” said Ngarewa-Packer.

“It’s humiliating for the government because we [New Zealand] are normally seen as punching above our weight in all of the great things in life.”

(With inputs from agencies)