Inside the drafting of Christopher Luxon’s ‘cut-and-paste’ Waitangi speech

Documents released through the Official Information Act give a behind-scenes look at the 10 days of preparation that went into Christopher Luxon’s 2024 Waitangi speech widely derided as ‘cut-and-paste’. The papers show who the Prime Minister sought advice from, how his office planned social media around certain lines, and his chief press secretary’s concern over how the speech would be delivered. David Fisher reports.

It was panned by critics as the “cut-and-paste” Waitangi speech.

But Prime Minister Christopher Luxon defended repeating lines from last year’s speech as evidence of how meaningful he found those phrases — and said he would be likely to repeat them again next year.

Emails released to the Herald under the Official Information Act show staff in the Prime Minister’s office saw the speech as personal to Luxon, even when seeking external input.

“It’s very much Christopher’s speech so we’re not looking for wholesale changes,” wrote one staff member to Tama Potaka, Minister of Māori Development, who received a draft the day before Luxon delivered the speech at Waitangi.

After Luxon gave the speech, it was criticised for recycling lines from his 2023 Waitangi speech, and failing to address tensions with Māori sparked by the policies of National’s coalition partners, Act and NZ First.

It was unclear from the OIA material released at what point the lines lifted from the 2023 speech were inserted into this year’s address.

The Prime Minister’s office has withheld seven out of the 16 email chains that discussed the development of the speech. Among the information withheld are the drafts of the speech.

A letter from Luxon’s chief of staff, Cameron Burrows, said work began on the speech on January 27. From that time through to February 3, he said “early drafts” were “shared between staff within the Prime Minister’s Office and staff within the Office of Hon Tama Potaka”.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaking to Māori-Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka at the left of the image, after being welcomed on to Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Others featured are NZ First Leader Winston Peters, his deputy Shane Jones and Act Leader David Seymour. Photo / Michael Cunningham

It was late on Thursday, February 1 — seven minutes before midnight — that Potaka personally emailed Luxon’s staff asking if there was a draft of the speech available.

“I would like to sync my own kōrero with the Prime Minister’s comments,” he said, adding: “Bring your togs if you are coming up — it is very warm.”

The reply from Luxon’s office: “Speech is still a wee distance away from the finishing line, sorry.”

Version 8 of ‘Christopher’s speech’

The draft wasn’t actually sent to Potaka until just after 1pm on the Sunday, about 24 hours before Luxon was due to speak.

The documents suggested that Potaka’s first look at the speech arrived in an attachment labelled “Waitangi 2024 speech v8.docx”, suggesting it was the eighth version of Luxon’s speech.

It was the same email that labelled the draft as “very much Christopher’s speech” and asking that only minor changes be made.

The same email and speech draft was shared with one other individual, who the Prime Minister’s office has said was a National Party member — but won’t name.

“Thank you so very much for doing this,” the person was told by Luxon’s office. The writer also said: “I’d spend longer conveying my gratitude but time is of the essence. If it was possible to come back to us by around 4-ish, we’d be most grateful but I know that’s likely pushing the friendship.”

It took less than 30 minutes for feedback to land with two minor amendments, “otherwise I think it looks good”.

Those amendments were “good catches”, the staff member told Potaka in another email with the draft now updated to a ninth version. Despite the Prime Minister’s office asserting few had seen the draft, the staff member asked Potaka to use the copy with the latest changes to “aid version control”. There is no record of Potaka suggesting any changes.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon with coalition partners from Act, David Seymour, and NZ First, Winston Peters. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The final exchanges were on February 5, the day Luxon was welcomed at Waitangi.

In the first, around 10am, a staff member in the Prime Minister’s office sent out the completed speech with selected lines highlighted as possible social media quotes.

Luxon’s staff considered seven lines from the speech striking enough to be used for social media quotes. Those lines emphasised themes of national exceptionalism, reconciliation and unity.

In the end, two were used. One appeared only on X while the other was used on X and a host of other social media channels.

It was: “I want Te Aō Māori to thrive. When Māori do well, we all know it, New Zealand does well.

“This Waitangi Day, I renew this Government’s commitment to helping all New Zealanders, Māori and non-Māori, get ahead, and to giving all our children and grandchildren hope for a prosperous and secure future here in this great country.”

In a later review of the speech The Spinoff editor Madeleine Chapman called it “boring” with “not a single line in it that is worth remembering”.

Two hours before Luxon spoke, chief press secretary Hamish Rutherford was organising timing of the wider distribution of the speech.

“There will be a bit of chatter about the fact he’s speaking from notes at all,” he wrote.

A colleague responded: “The tikanga is oratory but I’m not too worried about him using notes because he’s the PM and his speech needs to be published.”

Luxon’s speech followed an exchange of challenging speeches between tangata whenua and National’s coalition partners, Act’s David Seymour and NZ First’s Winston Peters.

Luxon copped criticism from some — such as Chapman — when it was discovered lines from 2023 had been recycled for 2024 use.

He said it was a “deliberate” move: “It’s important to have a consistency of message, and particularly given some of the misinformation and misunderstanding around the Treaty and what it means for us. I thought it was important to express it again as Prime Minister.”

David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.