New Zealand’s ACT Moves to Cancel Unique Legal Rights for Indigenous People

Protests are underway against the contentious bill.

Black Power gang members wearing insignia join a march down Queen St in Auckland, New Zealand, on May 30, 2024. Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

One of New Zealand’s governing parties has introduced legislation that could prove to be the most contentious of this government’s term.

The libertarian ACT Party, which governs in partnership with the much larger centre-right National Party, and the minor nationalist NZ First, has pushed to define clearly the three clauses of the Treaty of Waitangi.