New Māori Queen Queen Ngā Wai hono i te pō begins her reign with a deep well of goodwill - Audrey Young

Ngā Wai hono i te pō, the youngest child of Kīngi Tūheitia, will continue his legacy after being anointed the new leader of the Kīngitanga, Photo / Kiingitanga

Audrey Young is the New Zealand Herald’s senior political correspondent. She was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018.

OPINION

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Welcome to the Politics Briefing. It has been amazing to watch the send-off for King Tūheitia over the past week and the anointment this morning of his successor, his young daughter, Ngāwai hono i te po. She will begin her reign with a deep well of goodwill that has been on show in the past week during her father’s farewell.

Tūheitia was aged 51 when he was named to lead the Kīngitanga. She is just 27, for the past few years is said to have been groomed for the role and she speaks te reo. He was a surprise choice and a reluctant monarch to begin with. He didn’t seem very comfortable, especially expressing strong political views and it wasn’t clear whether they were his or those of his advisers. In the last few years and this year in particular, he found his comfort zone, his voice and his purpose, as the kotahitanga king.

And he proved an even stronger unifying force in death than he was in life.

After the pilgrimage of thousands of mourners to Tūrangawaewae, it seems a long time ago since Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stood before King Tuheita’s casket and recounted in a quivering voice why he’ll miss him.It was Luxon’s political inexperience that helped to propel the King to the heights of his power. No experienced politician would have agreed to the sheer breadth of policies eroding Māori gains as Luxon did after last year’s election. History will judge it as a political blunder of some magnitude. It has led to a new era of kotahitanga among Māori and where that leads is unknown.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaks on Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia to pay his respects for Kīngi Tūheitia. Photo / Kīngitanga

Luxon may have felt he had an ally in the King because he was grounded and calm in difficult times. But Tūheitia’s message from his first unity hui this year was simple and strong: “The best protest we can do right now is be Māori. Be who we are, live our values, speak our reo and care for our mokopuna, our awa, our maunga, just be Māori. Māori all day, every day. We are here, we are strong.”It will be an exciting prospect to see how Queen Ngāwai hono i te po develops her own style of leadership but she has plenty of time. Who she chooses as her closest advisers are likely to have a direct impact on the quality of her leadership. Continuity in the short-term at least may be advisable.

It will be an exciting prospect to see how Queen Ngāwai hono i te po develops her own style of leadership but she has plenty of time. Who she chooses as her closest advisers are likely to have a direct impact on the quality of her leadership. Continuity in the short-term at least may be advisable.

Shane Jones takes his medicine

It was just as well that New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones finally showed some willingness to be disciplined by the Attorney-General over his criticism of the judiciary. They turned out in force to Tūrangawaewae yesterday at the tangihanga’s final pōwhiri, which Jones led off. One of the lighter moments was an interruption of the lengthy speech by Supreme Court judge Justice Joe Williams by what sounded like a karanga designed to shut him down. He feigned offence, folded his arms and turned his back on the hosts.

Media take a bow

The coverage of the week’s events by the media has been exemplary, and perhaps fittingly by many women journalists, such as Maiki Sherman, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Yvonne Tahana and the Herald’s own Julia Gabel who played a leading role in our recent Whenua series. It’s so easy to focus on the annoying things in news coverage and to blame the messenger for the message. Sometimes the messenger deserves a big pat on the back.

Andersen backs down

Labour’s Ginny Andersen conceded police foot patrols have increased after presenting figures that appeared to show officers were “off the beat under National”. Photo / Mark Mitchell

It was good to see Labour’s former Police Minister Ginny Andersen back down and admit that she got it wrong last week over whether cops of the beat have increased or decreased since the election. Jamie Ensor who has joined the Herald’s press gallery team from Newshub reports on the backdown. Deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan has written a backgrounder on another set of figures that expose the difference between Simeon Brown’s plans for transport spending and the planned revenue streams.

Quote unquote

”Hūmārika is a word learned from my grandmother and it means there’s a certain dignity in silence.” - Cabinet minister Shane Jones shares some of the best advice he has never taken.

Micro quiz

Christopher Luxon has been travelling in Asia this week. Which two countries did he visit?

Brickbat

Goes to Cabinet collectively for raising the international visitor levy from $35 to $100, and that’s after a 60% increase on the cost of visitor visas.  NZ needs to attract tourists, not create new barriers to them.

Bouquet

Goes to Rahui Papa, Kiingitanga spokesman, and Ngira Simmonds, King Tūheitia’s chief of staff, who have been the brilliant public faces and interpreters of the Kīngitanga this past week. As Papa said yesterday: “We are not that scary.”

Latest political news and views

‘The face of renewal’: The youngest child of Kīngi Tūheitia – Ngā Wai hono i te pō – has been anointed the new leader of the Kīngitanga, taking over a legacy of her loved father and her much loved grandmother Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the sixth and seventh Māori monarchs.

Farewell Kīngi Tūheitia: Mourners gathered at Tūrangawaewae to farewell Kīngi Tūheitia, a monarch remembered for his ability to bring people together.

Opinion: PM Christopher Luxon displayed emotions rarely seen in the public eye as Kīngi Tūheitia’s vision for a unified nation shone briefly at Tūrangawaewae, wrote Adam Pearse.

Mea culpa: Labour’s Ginny Andersen has conceded police foot patrols have increased after last week presenting figures that appeared to show officers were “off the beat under National”.

Explainer: The Government plans to bring forward the introduction of a structured maths curriculum for Year 0-8 by a year after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called recent achievement data a “total system failure”. But how bad is the “crisis” really?

Analysis: Transport Minister Simeon Brown had dubbed NZTA’s $32.9 billion National Land Transport Programme a “record” investment in transport infrastructure - but do the figures check out?

Transport: New roads are in and cycleways are out of the new Government’s first National Land Transport Programme, which sets out where NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi spends the national transport budget.

Tourist levy: An international tourism levy charged to visitors to New Zealand will increase to $100 – a jump of almost 200% – in a decision the Government believes will help boost economic growth and support conservation.

A ‘clear message’: Shane Jones will focus his rhetoric on policy rather than personality after he said Judith Collins “sought to school me” following comments he made about the judiciary.

Peters picks a side: Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has decided to “side with Judith” over his MP Shane Jones’ controversial “communist” judge remark, saying “it should not have been said”.

Gangs Bill: Police had concerns with implementing the Government’s new gang laws this year, including safety risks and a potential loss of public trust and confidence, ministerial briefings reveal.

Capital gains tax: Outgoing Treasury chief executive Dr Caralee McLeish says New Zealand needs a capital gains tax and slimmer superannuation payments.

Opinion: The arm wrestling by National and Labour over consensus on fast-track and infrastructure is why we can’t have nice things, writes Claire Trevett.

Tax debate: Former Labour Party president Nigel Haworth said members have the opportunity to draft a “prescriptive” and “explicit” tax policy for the party in the next 15 months, which would be “binding” on its MPs, leaving no room for their caucus or governing council to wriggle out of.

Quiz answer: Malaysia and South Korea.

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