Te Pāti Māori co-leaders have been kicked out of Parliament’s debating chamber after conducting a pōwhiri without permission of all parties to symbolically welcome Meka Whaitiri. Video / NZ Herald / Parliament TV
Opinion by Claire Trevett
Claire Trevett is the New Zealand Herald’s Political Editor, based at Parliament in Wellington.
For all that National Party Christopher Luxon has accused Te Pāti Māori of “grandstanding” he was guilty of a bit of it himself when he ruled out Te Pāti Māori as a possible governing partner of National.
As Luxon himself conceded, it was pretty much a statementof the obvious - not least because the feeling is quite mutual.
It could also mark the day we saw Luxon become an actual politician, rather than a businessman trying out a politician’s suit.
The reason National decided to make a stage production out of announcing something that was already obvious, by way of a round of television and radio interviews, then a press statement, and then a press conference, was naked politics.
Luxon’s rule-out was not aimed at damaging Te Pāti Māori. He took aim at Te Pāti Māori, sure, pointing to its actions in Parliament and that the dominant thing on its website was a petition to remove the King as New Zealand’s head of state rather than policies on issues affecting Māori in their daily lives.
It was aimed at damaging Labour.
It was grabbing the opportunity handed to them by the left to have a lash at Labour while it was having problems and while its partners were also having problems.
And Luxon did that very strongly, accusing Labour and the parties on the left of getting bogged down in the mire and political stunts while voters were worried about paying their mortgages and getting food on the table.
It was also aimed at sending a very clear message to National’s base that it was ruling Te Pāti Māori out.
Christopher Luxon is correct that Te Pāti Māori now is a different party to 2008. Photo / Tania Whyte
It was to try to cast the parties on the left as a chaotic risky choice, and the National-Act grouping as the smooth ship focusing on important things.
Luxon did not want to talk about whether his own side might also become a coalition of chaos in the event New Zealand First was part of it (NZ First has ruled out Labour). That, he said, was a matter for another day. There is no doubt Act will want that day to come soon - and for NZ First to be ruled out.
His Te Pāti Māori move is a different thing from Sir John Key ruling out NZ First back in 2008. That was aimed at knocking NZ First out of the picture altogether.
The more likely consequence of Luxon’s ruling out Te Pāti Māori is that it will help them.
It will remove any wariness in voters in the Māori seats about whether or not Te Pāti Māori would dance with National again.
The last time they did that, it nearly killed the party off.
At the moment, it is not a hard message to sell. The Greens have had woes. Labour has had woes.
Luxon is right that Te Pāti Māori now is a different party to 2008. It has a more uncompromising co-leadership team than it did with Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples, and has different messaging.
The outlook is also different to 2008. It is often forgotten that Te Pāti Māori has never actually been the kingmaker before: National did not actually need its votes to get a majority in any of its three terms. It could have got there with Act and United Future.
It has never had ministers in Cabinet before either. It was invited to work with National partly as insurance, in case there was a time when it was the kingmaker. It was kept on - and stayed on - because it actually worked out, at least in terms of how the parties worked together.
It was the voters who pulled the pin on it.
Luxon’s move takes the Kingmaker title possibility off Te Pāti Māori, but it was always likely to tilt left in a genuine kingmaker position.
The bigger question for Te Pāti Māori was never whether it would go with National or Labour, but whether it would go with anybody - or sit on the cross benches.
