Claire Trevett: PM Christopher Luxon’s flexi-promises - from NZDF plane backdowns to te reo Māori

Alas, poor Prime Minister Christopher Luxon being caught not once but thrice by his previous utterances from the freedom of Opposition, from the Defence Boeings to te reo Māori.

The Monday post-Cabinet press conference delivered an occasionally farcical flood of such moments.

There was his off-again, on-again relationship with the RNZAF Boeings. Back in June, Luxon had sworn to never set foot on the RNZAF Boeings, which have carried Prime Ministers and entourages around the world for 30 years, saying their breakdowns made them an embarrassment and even a safety risk.

Then it came to his first overseas trip as PM – a one-day visit to Australia this Wednesday - and the Boeing was booked.

Luxon had clearly since discovered two things: travel by Air Force is far more convenient than commercial travel, and most of the media could not afford to accompany him if commercial flights were used.

Cue Luxon’s backtrack on his pledge to never use the Boeings – but it turned out the Boeings had other ideas.

The one he was supposed to take had broken down, and the other one was undergoing extensive maintenance. He’ll know today how he’ll be getting to Australia – whether it will be by Boeing or if that breakdown means he gets to keep his promise not to fly on them, and he will go on another aircraft, sans the media.

Asked what his current thoughts on the Boeing were, he grinned sheepishly and said he’d had many thoughts about the Boeing over the ages but maintained it was embarrassing that they kept breaking down. He didn’t say if that meant he’d bring forward the money to replace them, however - something else he ruled out in the past, despite them also being used to move defence personnel around as well as Prime Ministers.

Then it came to the revelation Luxon’s te reo Māori lessons were funded from his parliamentary budget, and not out of his own pocket, after National had taken aim at taxpayer-funded bonuses for public sector staff who knew te reo Māori.

He had an argument ready. He pointed out his objection was not to the taxpayer paying for people to learn te reo Māori, but paying them a bonus on top of their salary for having learnt it.

He also all but conceded his own lessons may well have been a waste of money, saying he had struggled to learn it but would keep on trying. Nor could he say how much had been spent on the lessons. The man who insists on line-by-line accounting for the spending of government departments didn’t have that line of his own expenses to hand.

Credit to the guy for the effort, actually, and he has been a fairly regular advocate for people learning te reo Māori.

Nonetheless, the third issue was also te reo-related. The coalition government agreements stipulated that Government departments should be known by their English names first, and the te reo Māori name used second, if at all. The grounds for this was many people were confused by the te reo Māori names.

The only exceptions to this rule were supposed to be Māori-specific government departments.

Cue 10 minutes of talking about Kāinga Ora at his post-Cabinet press conference, as he and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced a review of the housing agency.

He was eventually asked why he kept calling it Kāinga Ora when the government policy was to use the English name first. There was some spluttering and then Luxon said it was because people knew what Kāinga Ora referred to.

Luxon was asked what the English name was. There was a pause and then Bishop answered: “Homes and Communities.”

Turns out Kāinga Ora is the only government department for which the English name is more confusing than the te reo name.