Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley – for example – We should regret using the words “civil war.”

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The fact that she refused to answer her phone when the media called a few days later probably shows you how keen she was to repeat that comment. Not enthusiastic, clearly.

This kind of alarmist language doesn’t help anyone other than making other hysterics feel hysterical. It may actually be a bit dangerous to introduce the idea that David Seymour is calling for violence.

If Shipley hoped saying nice things could start to rehabilitate his reputation Mainzeal’s whoopsie, she probably knows now that it didn’t work.

Work also needs a cup of tea and a lie down to calm the nerves.

They did their best pantomime about losing their minds to Evil Bill.

This involves repeating what the left itself now likes to call “disinformation.” Senior MP Willie Jackson keeps shouting (literally, shouting at times) that Seymour wants to rewrite the treaty.

This is factually false. Nobody touches the Treaty. Seymour redefines principles. They do not appear in the Treaty. They were only created in 1987. They were recognized by a government in 1989. They were recognized again and amended in 1989, 1991, 1992 and 1995.

So if they are clearly changeable, what’s the problem with changing them again?

Labor hysteria also included MP Ginny Andersen on the ZB show. Mike Hosking’s Breakfast Show Wednesday, accusing the Prime Minister of “disrespecting Parliament by presenting a bill that he plans to kill”.

Look, I’m not a fan of the way Christopher Luxon did everything either, but the Labor Party isn’t really in a position to throw around ‘disrespect’.

They showed virtually the same “disrespect” in Parliament almost 20 years ago. Replace National and Act for Labor and NZ First. Replace the Treaty Principles Bill with the Treaty Principles Removal Bill. Replace 2024 with 2006. And you find yourself in a mirror situation.

In the mid-2000s, NZ First wanted to introduce the Treaty Principles Removal Bill. Their main coalition partner, the Labor Party, agreed, but it would only take the matter to the select committee and no further.

So Labor might want to abandon this particular line of attack – at the risk of looking like a bunch of historically ill-informed hypocrites.

And while they’re at it, read Hansard, the record of what is said in Parliament.

They will find their own beloved. Nanaia Mahuta said things that could have come straight from David Seymour’s mouth: “The principle of equality is that all New Zealanders are equal before the law. »

With the same opinions, she could have been a deputy of the law.

And then: “Sending this bill to a select committee allows us to initiate a debate. We are not afraid of that.”

She wasn’t afraid. But Labor 2024 is. And Jenny Shipley is.

But we are clearly going to have a debate. Because the bill is going to be selected in committee for at least six months, whether we like it or not.

The only choice we have now is how to conduct this debate. Either it’s hysterical or it’s adult. This choice belongs to each of us.

And in fact, the hikoi showed us that it was possible to make your point without becoming hysterical.