Christopher Luxon starts 2024 on the defensive as opposition grows to Act’s Treaty Principles Bill - Audrey Young

OPINION

This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s subscriber-only Premium Politics newsletter. To sign up, click on your profile at nzherald.co.nz and select ‘Newsletters’. For a step-by-step guide, click here.

Welcome to my first newsletter of the year - and what a start to the political year it has been.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has spent much of this week on the defensive over an Act bill he plans to kill off eventually but can’t explicitly say he plans to kill off.

The bill, which rewrites the current principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and enshrines them in law, would oust the principle of partnership that has underpinned the Crown’s relationship with Māori for at least 30 years. Partnership is the overriding principle. There is no mention of it in Act’s policy prescription of what the principles should be and Act eschews the very concept.

Act leader David Seymour doesn’t explain it that way but ditching partnership would be the effect of the Act bill and, arguably, that is its intention.

It is true that there has not been a public debate as the principles have emerged. Governments have not encouraged it on the basis it is either too complicated, too divisive, or both. But it promises to dominate the political landscape this year and sour the Coalition Government’s relationship with Māori. As Herald columnist Mathew Hooton writes today (see below), Luxon has earned the title the great unifier of the people. “In nearly 1000 years, no one – not even Helen Clark over the foreshore and seabed – has so unified Māori.”

Seymour has a state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday morning and he is likely to want to turn the attention away from Luxon and onto his own party to take credit/blame for the move.

In other news, former Justice Minister Kiri Allan has spoken out about the night that ended her political career, the events leading up to it, and life since then. She tells political editor Claire Trevett that some of the pressure came from having to implement policies she did not agree with in response to ram raids. She makes the point that she is one of the few people who can truly know what Golriz Ghahraman is going through – another talented MP who stuffed up her own career. It is worth a read and a watch. It is a reminder of how good Kiri could be and what a loss she has been to Labour.

Former Labour minister Kiri Allan. Photo / Alan Gibson

Earlier in the week, in a huge move, the Cabinet committed New Zealand to join the US/UK-led military operation in the Red Sea aimed at stopping Houthi attacks on shipping. Endorsing the earlier strikes against the Houthis was symbolic. But sending six Air Force personnel to help identify targets in Yemen for military goes beyond symbolism. The US asked and New Zealand answered swiftly. It doesn’t appear to have been a line call. The US has previously said that 20 countries have been involved, including Britain, Bahrain, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain, but that not all countries wanted to be named.

On the same day the deployment was announced, as if to bolster New Zealand’s independent foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters tweeted his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dismissing the two-state solution as unviable. And he met China’s ambassador, Wang Xiaolong.

Micro quiz

Former Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown will replace Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, who has been charged with shoplifting. Name three other former mayors of Wellington in the past 50 years who have also been or are currently MPs. (Answer below.)

Quote unquote

“If there is any meddling with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori will not sit idly by” - the Kingitanga’s Rahui Papa to the Government at Rātana.

“The Government has no plan, and never has had plans, to amend or revise the Treaty” - Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at Rātana.

Brickbat

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Goes to new Associate Health Minister Casey Costello - not for asking officials for advice on freezing excise on smoked tobacco, but for telling RNZ she hadn’t sought advice (it has a document showing she did).

Bouquet

Trade Minister Todd McClay.

Goes to Trade Minister Todd McClay. Following a swift visit to India before Christmas, he is now visiting the World Trade Organisation in Geneva and the UAE, which is hosting a WTO ministerial meeting next month. A flying start to push New Zealand’s agenda.

Latest political news and views

Kiri Allan: Former Labour minister Kiri Allan speaks out about the night that led to her resignation from politics and how she has set about rebuilding her life.

Opinion - Treaty bill: Both National and Act are failing the good faith test over the Treaty Principles Bill, writes Matthew Hooton.

Rātana: Demands not to touch Te Tiriti o Waitangi are increasingly becoming the central messages Māori are sending to the Government, with leaders at Rātana adding to growing opposition to the proposed Treaty Principles Bill.

Opinion - Rātana: There were plenty of fireworks at Rātana, but none of them involved Prime Minister Christopher Luxon as he sought to diffuse tension over the Coalition Government’s Māori policy, writes Audrey Young.

Analysis - Treaty bill: Act’s controversial Treaty Principles Bill appears to be dead before it’s even been written, says Derek Cheng.

Opinion - Ghahraman shoplifting charges: Empathy and accountability are not opposites - and both should be applied to the case of former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, writes Simon Wilson.

Political agenda 2024: From Māori-Crown relations to the cost of living, Derek Cheng takes a look at the battleground political issues for 2024.

Red Sea deployment: New Zealand is deploying a Defence Force team of six “highly trained” people to the Middle East to help provide maritime security in the Red Sea.

Deployment backlash: Labour and the Greens have warned the Government’s decision to deploy Defence Force personnel to the Middle East risks enmeshing New Zealand in one of the region’s interminable wars.

Ukraine aid: The Government is considering a new round of assistance to Ukraine, and has asked officials to present it with advice on possible options.

Israel-Hamas war: A little over a month after the October 7 attacks on Israel, MFAT officials began advising the Government on calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Tobacco tax: Cigarettes would be insulated from the full impact of inflation under a proposal from New Zealand First Associate Health Minister Casey Costello.

Quiz answer: Andy Foster, a current NZ First MP; Mark Blumsky, a former National MP; and Dame Fran Wilde, a former Labour MP.

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.

For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.