Labour's Willie Jackson ejected from house for calling David Seymour a liar during Treaty Principles Bill reading

Labour's Māori Development spokesperson has been ejected from the House after calling David Seymour a "liar" during the Treaty Principles Bill's first reading - breaking Parliament's rules.

Jackson was delivering his debate speech saying Seymour was using the select committee as a "six-month hate-tour".

"The minister's vanity Treaty Principles Bill will cost us $4 million ... at a time when we've got cost of living going through the roof.

He said Māori would never accept the redefining of the relationship with the Crown.

"We will march and march and we will hīkoi for our rights, mo ake ake ake. Mr Speaker this minister has purposefully allowed misinformation to replace the true nature of the relationship ... and sold that criticism as equality.

Addressing Seymour directly, he said: "You should be ashamed of yourself, and you are a liar".

Calling another MP a liar is considered unparliamentary language. Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee asked Jackson to withdraw his statement, and apologise, but he refused.

Seymour's earlier speech had pointed to the existing Treaty Principles, arguing they were problematic because they provided specific rights to Māori.

He said the problem the principles outlined through the courts had was "they afford Māori different rights from other New Zealanders, and I know why that is: lawyers, with their training, they can't help but see a contract and their instinct tells them to interpret a contract instead of ask 'what is the best constitutional foundation for a country'."

His speech was interrupted part way through by Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer raising a point of order, arguing Māori had never ceded sovereignty and Seymour's statements were offensive and deliberately making references to Māori sovereignty. The Speaker shut that down, saying the point of order was not in keeping with the rules of Parliament.

Brownlee had earlier taken the unusual step of laying out the rules for those in the public gallery ahead of the debate.

"Members of Parliament must be able to debate issues without interruption from the public galleries. That becomes even more important when a bill before the house does not meet favour with all who are viewing its proceedings. Accordingly then, if anyone interrupts proceedings from the galleries they will be removed and not permitted to return."

The First Reading is Parliament's first opportunity to debate a proposed law and decide whether to put it through the process towards becoming law.

In this unusual circumstance, two of the governing parties - National and NZ First - have said they will vote against the bill at second reading, and are voting to support it at this first stage only to get it to select committee, where it will spend six months going through a public consultation process.

The four-page bill was introduced last Friday, revealing the exact text of the proposed law change for the first time - with a few differences from earlier versions put forth by Seymour ahead of the election and since.

It purports to redefine the Treaty Principles, scrapping those established through the courts and putting new ones in their place: that the government has the power to govern; that everyone is equal before the law; and that hapū and iwi are only afforded different rights if agreed through Treaty settlements.

Its critics say this does not reflect the text or meaning of the Treaty/Te Tiriti, it would revoke promises and guarantees made to Māori in 1840 and since, and that the bill itself would breach the Treaty and cause tino rangatiratanga for Māori to be extinguished in a legal sense.

One of those critics, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, delivered a scathing appraisal of the bill before departing Parliament to attend APEC in Peru.

"You do not go negate, with a single stroke of a pen, 184 years of debate and discussion, with a bill that I think is very simplistic," he said.

His vote in favour of progressing the legislation is to be recorded in line with all other government MPs .

The bill's champion and chief author, David Seymour, pushed back - saying "equal rights for all New Zealanders is a simple idea but it's also a very powerful one. It also enables us to overcome many of the other challenges that we face".

He also disagreed with Luxon's suggestion his bill was a distraction from what really mattered to New Zealanders.

"Nah, I think the government's doing a very good job of focusing on the economy and law and order ... right across the board the government's doing a great job on these tough issues and ACT I would say is making a disproportionately large contribution to it."

National's Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka told RNZ the Treaty Principles Bill did nothing to ensure equal citizenship and equality of opportunity.

He says the bill carries forward the coalition deal between National and ACT as a result of the MMP system, but the bill does nothing to advance National's quest.

"Our quest is to ensure that we generate equal citizenship and equality of opportunity for Māori and all New Zealanders, as written and drafted by Tā Apirana Ngata nearly 100 years ago, and a reflection of the fight for Aotearoa New Zealand and for King and Country by the Māori battalion in battlefields that are named and adorned on the walls of this Parliament.

"So absolutely that is my quest, and this bill does nothing to engage and deliver on that quest."

Potaka said he was looking forward to the select committee and encourages everyone - particularly iwi Māori - to participate and ensure their concerns are articulated.

With Luxon absent, Potaka was challenged repeatedly in Question Time to defend the bill.

"I can acknowledge that there is hurt and pain across many communities as a result of this bill," he said, under questioning from Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

The party's other co-leader Rawiri Waititi had earlier told reporters it was not for Seymour to make constitutional changes, and a hui should be called with Māori hapū to have the conversation properly.

"This is not a democratic process, this is a constitutional process. If it isn't between the two sovereigns that signed it, it is an absolute waste of time."

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