Christopher Luxon needs to show leadership in this distracted, divided Government and attend Waitangi - Shane Te Pou

THREE KEY FACTS

• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will not attend Waitangi Treaty Grounds this Waitangi Day.
• He confirmed in December that while the Government would have ‘senior representatives’ at Waitangi he would be ‘elsewhere’.
• Luxon says Act’s Treaty Principles Bill ‘will be voted down and it won’t become law’.

The Prime Minister’s decision to snub the Waitangi Day events can only be seen as another signal of how little he values the place of Māori in our society and our politics.

This anti-Māori agenda is failing politically and is distracting the Government when the country desperately needs it to be focused on the economy.

Christopher Luxon says that he cares deeply about Māori and he is opposed to the Treaty Principles Bill - but actions speak louder than words. Failing to show up to Waitangi and the accompanying Iwi Leaders’ Forum disrespects the Crown’s Treaty partners.

Once again, Luxon will be ceding his leadership role to David Seymour, who will be at Waitangi and who will, as the incoming Deputy Prime Minister in June, represent the Government when he pushes his bill aimed at rewriting our founding document.

Luxon could take the opportunity at Waitangi to stand before the country, as he should have appeared before the over 50,000-strong hīkoi to Parliament last year, and announce that he is withdrawing the divisive and flawed Treaty Principles Bill. That’s what he would do, if he really was committed to the Treaty and the advancement of Māori.

“By their deeds you will know them,” goes the saying. It’s easy to mouth hollow platitudes. It’s what you do that matters.

And this Government has run an unceasing campaign against Māori culture and the place of Māori in modern Aotearoa. That has continued this year with respected Treaty experts being replaced in my opinion by unqualified zealots on the Waitangi Tribunal.

The sacking of Dr Shane Reti as Health Minister and his replacement with Simeon Brown, and leaving no Māori in Luxon’s kitchen Cabinet, mirrors the Waitangi Tribunal appointments – the replacement of Māori experts with, in my opinion, ideologues.

'Perhaps the Government’s abysmal polling is finally helping Luxon wake up to the fact that voters don’t want a Government focused on division.' Photo / Mark Mitchell

It is a mystery to me why a Government in 2025 thinks the path to political popularity lies in alienating the one in six voters who are Māori, rather than focusing on the issues that voters (Māori and non-Māori alike) care about.

Perhaps the Government’s abysmal polling is finally helping Luxon wake up to the fact that voters don’t want a Government focused on division – we want a Government that’s going to deliver jobs, higher incomes, better public services and infrastructure and a clean environment.

The Prime Minister, trying to turn attention away from the undermining of the Treaty, has said this will be the year of economic growth. We can only hope that it will be after the disastrously deep recession he oversaw in 2024, with nearly 40,000 jobs lost.

But the initial signs aren’t great, are they?

A new visa so that people on holiday in New Zealand can legally do a few work emails and Zoom calls from the hotel room – as if they don’t do that already. A few speed limit increases on some short stretches of road – saving a few seconds for drivers that use them. Maybe selling off Quotable Value after the next election – as if selling the family silver ever made us better off.

Are these really the top new economic policies, first cabs off the rank for the Government’s great economic revival? It doesn’t feel like it’s going to turn the dial. Spinning the wheels but not getting anywhere, more like.

The Government needs to get real. Enough of the gimmicky little policies; it’s time to start investing. We need reliable, affordable electricity, we need the ferries sorted, we need world-class public transport and public services. We need jobs for our young people. Or we’re going to keep seeing record numbers flee across the ditch.

Things are going to get shaky for the Government this year, with Act pursuing an anti-Māori agenda, National moving to the right economically and New Zealand First refusing to go along with privatisation and running down our assets.

Add in the wild card of the second Donald Trump presidency running roughshod over the global order and imposing tariffs and a distracted, divided Government is the last thing we need.

We need a unified Government that drops its attempts to divide us against each other and delivers actual meaningful policies, not bumper stickers.

That can only happen if the Prime Minister steps up and takes control of his Government and decides it’s time to lead for all New Zealanders. He can start by showing up at Waitangi.