If Act leader David Seymour hoped to once again be the centre of attention over the Waitangi Day period, he had not reckoned with NZ First’s Shane Jones.
Jones’ interference operation meant Waitangi did not end up being all about Seymourand the well-flogged dead horse that is the Treaty Principles Bill.
That was partly because of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s decision to go to Akaroa instead of Waitangi.
He had seen it happen last year and there was no way Jones was going to let Seymour become the martyr of the day again.
He had seen the Waitangi-bounce take effect in the polls when other politicians had been roughed up. In the end, all that Seymour really suffered was some turned backs and an occasionally disappearing microphone.
Jones’ efforts to stop anything happening to Seymour that might allow him to play the martyr card included putting his own body on the line.
He went forward with Seymour as a bodyguard after urging Seymour to step up to pick up the wero (challenge) laid down during the pōwhiri.
Usually the political leaders – including Prime Ministers – step forward on their own to pick up the wero put on the ground by the warriors.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that was a gesture of support or affection by Jones (although on Waitangi Day itself, Seymour did open the Tipene charter school, on the grounds of St Stephen’s School, which Jones attended many years ago).
Jones knew nobody would try anything if he was standing right next to Seymour, eyeballing the warriors.
NZ First MP Shane Jones escorts Act leader David Seymour forward to pick up the wero. Photo / Dean Purcell
He didn’t want anything to happen to Seymour, because he knew that would mean the day would become all about Seymour. And he clearly wanted people to know that, given Seymour had heavy police protection while in Waitangi.
Jones stole Seymour’s headlines by design. It was admittedly a haphazard and theatrical design, which included talking about rubbing horse dung into people’s heads, lamenting that he had not brought any with him to do so.
There was his tirade about “demonic microphones” and declaration that removing a microphone did not remove the voice (he was right, partly because Seymour had a back-up microphone on his lapel for his social media video).
Jones then performed the gymnastic feat of the reverse pork barrel with a double twist: he threatened to remove money he’d already dispensed to the Waitangi National Trust if they did not deliver a tidier pōwhiri.
It meant everybody was talking about Jones’ barely veiled threat and criticism of the pōwhiri rather than about Seymour or the Treaty Principles Bill. That did not stop Seymour trying to milk the microphone removals for all he could on his social media. But it could have been much worse.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was more than happy for his coalition partners to be the ones in the headlines as he continued with his effort to talk about anything but the Treaty bill.
Luxon has learned a bitter lesson about the cost of giving an inch in coalition negotiations. As a result of giving that inch, he has now been suffering for what must feel like many miles.
He recognised it as divisive from the start, but his agreement to allow Seymour to put up the bill and get it to select committee has landed Luxon with a much bigger damage control mission to contend with than he must have expected. It blighted his Government’s relationship with Māori from the get-go.
Luxon’s decision to accept Ngāi Tahu’s invitation instead of traipsing up north was partly to avoid the repeat of last year, when he was repeatedly castigated for allowing Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill to go before Parliament.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon arrives at Ōnuku Marae in Akaroa for Waitangi Day celebrations. Photo / George Heard
Luxon’s no-show at Waitangi may well have looked cowardly. The main reason was not to try to avoid the questions and challenges about the bill – but to try to salvage his (and National’s) relationship with iwi.
That would have been a lost cause up north around Waitangi Day, where there was only ever going to be one issue.
It is no small thing that the iwi leaders’ forum refused to invite ministers to meet them and it should concern Luxon. It has left him with the job of trying to build relationships iwi by iwi, rather than as a collective.
Any government needs to have a strong and constructive relationship with iwi.
Iwi leaders do not surrender that relationship on a whim because it is equally critical for them. Many are economic powerhouses and pragmatic when it comes to the need to deal with the Government.
The talks and work between iwi and Government are wide-ranging – from Treaty rights and issues such as water to economic and social concerns.
Yes, individual ministers meet informally with those leaders as they get about. But the forum is the collective affair where issues are thrashed out and compromises reached, the place a government learns what is and is not tolerable.
Luxon did not have much of a pre-existing relationship with those iwi leaders, and giving any ground at all on the Treaty Principles Bill meant Luxon was on the wrong foot from the start.
His early efforts to try to rectify that have not been wholly successful.
He declared that horse dead last Waitangi Day by stating National would not support it beyond its first reading. He had declared several times since then that it was still dead. Yet still he cops heat for it.
But while the others were running the gauntlet of the Waitangi pōwhiri, Luxon was announcing a roading rebuild in Canterbury.
On Waitangi Day itself, he went to Akaroa where it was raised – including briefly by himself – but so too were other issues.
That was the value in it for Luxon – as well as for Ngāi Tahu. Luxon did not escape criticism over the bill – he heard criticism from another iwi about it. Ngāi Tahu’s Justin Tipa got his chance to set out his iwi’s case and did so strongly. Luxon should absorb his words.
Any fracas around Waitangi Day usually disappears quickly and so on Friday, Luxon was in Nelson talking about the opening of the applications for fast-track consenting under the Government’s new law.
He will be hoping that he can wrangle a fast-track out of the nightmare the Treaty Principles Bill has been for him.
Alas, on the same day, the select committee released the full list of submitters on the bill, reminding him there are still months to go before the flogged horse can finally be voted down.
Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. After starting at the Northern Advocate, she joined the NZ Herald in 2003. She has covered politics since 2007 and is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
