The National Party is wasting millions of dollars allowing David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill to be drafted and go to Select Committee.

“CTU calculations showing the Government is likely to waste over $4 million on a bill it doesn’t even plan to pass is farcical, given they’ve spent the best part of a year telling everyone else to tighten their belts,” Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said.

“The CTU points out this money could pay for 40 nurses, except the government’s put a hiring pause in place, while trainee nurses struggle to find hospital placements.

“It could buy a lot of lunches for school kids, yet the government and David Seymour in particular made a big song and a dance about cutting that programme back to save money.

“The $4 million estimate for the cost to the taxpayer is conservative and doesn’t take into account a lot of the work likely to have to be done by various agencies. It also doesn’t count any of the time, money and energy the submitters themselves will have to put in to be heard on a bill that Christopher Luxon says is divisive and won’t get his party’s support later anyway.

“The National Party can stop this wasteful spending and kill the bill now. If they don’t, they’re not only allowing a divisive debate that doesn’t need to happen, they’re also being hypocritical with spending taxpayers’ money,” Chris Hipkins said.