New Zealand's right-wing coalition government has repealed or reversed around a dozen policies supporting Māori rights.

Since taking office in November, it scrapped laws giving Māori input on environmental issues and is repealing another aimed at maintaining cultural connections for Māori children in state care.

The Māori Health Authority has been abolished, and Māori language use in public services reduced.

The government's next target is the reinterpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, raising concerns it could undo decades of hard-won Māori rights.

The Treaty, signed in 1840 between the Crown and Māori chiefs, has been central to Māori rights for over five decades. However, its future role is now uncertain.

The political shift traces back to two minor parties that helped Prime Minister Christopher Luxon form a coalition.

David Seymour, of the ostensibly libertarian ACT Party, and Winston Peters of NZ First campaigned against "race-based policies" and brought this philosophy to coalition negotiations.

Mr Seymour secured Mr Luxon's support to draft the Treaty Principles Bill, proposing to reinterpret the Treaty as applying to all New Zealanders, not just Māori.

"The Treaty is between the Crown and Māori," said former attorney-General Christopher Finlayson.

"Where Seymour goes wrong is thinking it's an agreement between races, and that's fundamentally wrong."

An analysis by the Ministry of Justice warns that Mr Seymour's bill "reduces Indigenous rights to a set of ordinary rights that could be exercised by any group of citizens."

Mr Seymour also proposes a referendum on the Treaty's future role, which Māori activists fear could create national division.

Māori leaders are alarmed.

Mane Tahere, chair of the Ngāpuhi iwi (tribe), led protests against the repeal of 7AA, an amendment designed to reduce the number of Māori children in state care.

"We are in crisis as a tribe," Mr Tahere said.

"We have to stand up."

There are more than 800 Ngāpuhi children in state care, more than any other Māori tribe.

Government ministers, such as Tama Potaka, defend the repeal, arguing it prioritises safety over cultural needs.

However, Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has warned, the "scale and speed is beyond anything we've known."

"It's like the initial colonisation."

Prime Minister Luxon has opposed Mr Seymour's call for a referendum, but the bill will be debated into 2025.

Māori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi Clarke, who has become a leading voice in the resistance, expressed concern that the bill could "cause riots."

Mrs Clarke highlighted the swift changes made by the coalition, such as the abolition of the Māori Health Authority, which she noted "was gone in a couple of hours."

As the debate over the Treaty and Māori rights intensifies, some, like Don Brash, a former National Party leader, argue for a "colour-blind democracy" where all New Zealanders are treated equally.

But others, like Mr Finlayson, warn that a referendum would be "very divisive."

While the bill may be defeated in parliament, the larger question remains whether the idea behind it will also be rejected.