Peter MacDonald
The political firestorm surrounding David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill and the backlash from Te Pāti Māori activists has stirred national debate but not in the way we deserve. What we are witnessing is not honest dialogue about equality, Treaty obligations or the shape of modern New Zealand. Instead, we’re watching a carefully staged theatre of outrage, misinformed reaction, and clickbait media hype: a kind of Tasmanian devil fight club, whipped into being by all sides and inflamed by a media landscape that thrives on division.
Seymour’s proposed bill, at its core, seeks to reassert equal representation under the law for all New Zealanders. You don’t have to agree with every part of it to acknowledge that it raises legitimate questions about how Treaty principles are interpreted today, especially when legal terms like ‘partnership’ are applied in ways never envisioned in 1840. Yet, any effort to revisit these interpretations is instantly branded as racist or colonial. That alone should raise concern.
The recent outrage sparked by Seymour’s remarks in parliament, where he called out rhetoric he deemed racially divisive, led to a bizarre response. The son of Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, Eru Kapa-Kingi, challenged Seymour to a charity boxing match for what he claimed was an insult to his mother. This kind of outburst might seem juvenile on the surface, but it reveals something deeper: that modern activism is now as much performance as it is principle.
Eru Kapa-Kingi, an academic and political advisor, has used this moment to place himself at the centre of the Māori rights movement, not just as a commentator, but as a kind of self-appointed cultural guardian. He frequently invokes emotionally loaded phrases and historical grievances, drawing on the legacy of figures like Dame Whina Cooper to justify a hardline stance on Maori sovereignty. But his rhetoric often frames dissent as a threat, not a contribution, and leaves no room for the many Māori who don’t share his view.
Ironically, Kapa-Kingi echoes Dame Whina Cooper’s call to “protect what our children hear and learn”. Yet this sentiment is now being used to justify a rigid orthodoxy and not to encourage open debate. If an ordinary working class Māori from an impoverished background were to speak up, challenging either iwi leadership or activist narratives, would they be granted the same microphone as Eru? Probably not. In many cases, Māori voices that don’t align with iwi elites or academic figures are pushed to the margins or silenced entirely.
And that points to another uncomfortable truth: Māori representation in modern New Zealand is not as democratic as we like to believe. It is filtered through iwi structures, institutional gatekeepers and media alliances. Who gets to speak for Māori is tightly controlled. So while activists may claim to fight for tino rangatiratanga (self-determination), that self-determination often excludes Māori who are not part of the establishment.
Meanwhile, the media play their part – not as neutral observers, but as active participants. They frame Seymour’s bill, not as a democratic proposal open for scrutiny, but as a cultural attack. They elevate activist voices while downplaying dissent. Most dangerously, they fuel division by reducing every issue to a clash of identities. The Treaty debate, like so many others, becomes another clickbait bonfire: a manufactured controversy in which outrage is monetised and complexity discarded.
The mainstream media are the real wielders of division in this debate. They’ve stirred public emotions with partial truths, selective reporting and inflammatory framing, ensuring that New Zealanders remain misinformed, polarised and hostile. The result is chaos: scuffles on the streets, distrust among neighbours and no real clarity about the way forward.
What gets lost in all of this is the opportunity for a mature national conversation – one based on respect, truth and shared future. There are many Māori who believe in equality before the law, who question the current interpretation of Treaty principles and who want to see unity, not separation. But they are being drowned out by the noise of media, political elites and cultural gatekeepers.
New Zealand is at a crossroads. Will we allow loud voices, fuelled by grievance or guilt, to define our future? Or will we find a way to talk across our differences. Not with boxing gloves, but with courage and humility...
We can’t build a better country on the back of misinformation and outrage. If there’s one truth we must reclaim, it’s this: unity will not grow in soil poisoned by mistrust. And right now, too many are salting the earth.
