Maori hecklers accuse New Zealand PM of planning to scrap language protections

NEW ZEALAND’S prime minister was heckled at a Maori gathering amid fears that he is planning to tear up a British colonial agreement to protect indigenous people’s language and status.

Christopher Luxon was booed by Ngapuhi tribe members after weeks of nationwide protests against his Right-leaning government.

He has pledged to dissolve the Maori Health Authority, minimise the use of its language in public services and end limits on tobacco sales, which will disproportionately affect the Maori population given their high smoking rates.

His government, elected in October after Jacinda Ardern stood down, also intends to “reinterpret” the Treaty of Waitangi, a pact that Maori chiefs agreed with the British Crown almost two centuries ago to guarantee their rights and autonomy. While Mr Luxon and senior government figures travelled to Waitangi, northern New Zealand, to mark the treaty, clashes soon followed with the Maori in attendance.

Winston Peters, the deputy prime minister, told one heckler to “get an education” and suggested Maori leaders were talking “crap” about plans to redefine the treaty’s legal principles.

“Whoever said we’re getting rid of the Treaty of Waitangi? Who?” he asked. “Stop the crap. Stop the hysteria.”

He added: “Some of us were out here before you were born, fighting for Maori land rights, so we aren’t here to apologise.”

Many in the crowd held signs spattered with fake blood calling on ministers to honour the treaty, which resulted in the creation of New Zealand when it was signed by Maori chiefs in 1840.

The pact has long been a source of contention because key distinctions exist in its English and Maori forms.

Tensions intensified over government plans to redefine how the treaty affects law, which has prompted disquiet from the Maori king.

David Seymour, the regulation minister, was incensed as the audience sang over his speech and called him a “joke” and “sandfly” – a type of blood-sucking insect.

“You can sing, you can sing, you’re not going to beat an idea by singing,” he said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“I’m sorry to say, not even Donald Trump is calling his opponents sandflies. You should attack ideas, not people.”

Mr Luxon told reporters after the event that the crowd had not shown “full respect”, adding: “It was pretty much as I expected.”