The Prime Minister has defended his choice not to attend Waitangi this year and says while he may travel in future he does not want the day to be “dominated” by the historic site.
Normally the country’s leader would participate in the Waitangi Day dawn service but Christopher Luxon instead spent the day at Ōnuku Marae near Akaroa in Canterbury.
“I’ve always had a view that I want to go around the country where the Treaty was signed,” he said.
“I had this huge privilege when Bill English, in his year as Prime Minister, invited me to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Marae (at Bastion Point). He didn’t go to Waitangi that year either, and I went with him.
“It was a really special occasion, and it just made me always think – we want to celebrate Waitangi Day across the whole of the country, and it doesn’t have to be dominated by Waitangi.
“We want to get out and about. These events have been going on for 185 years across the country and I think it’s important to see it. For me, that’s what it’s all about.”
Luxon is not the first Prime Minister to mark the day away from Waitangi itself.
“I’ve been to Waitangi in the last two years. Former Prime Ministers haven’t come to Waitangi each and every year.
“I’ve only been in politics for four years, but I came into it having been very impressed by watching Bill English go to another place and actually celebrate Waitangi Day.
“It gave it a different dimension and a different perspective and for me, that’s really important.
“It doesn’t preclude me from going back to Waitangi. I hope to be back there, but I also have really enjoyed today. I think it’s been really, really special.”
Luxon told media Waitangi Day “is an awesome day” and he thought all New Zealanders “should be celebrating it”.
“I know it’s a chance for us to have the challenges and the provocation – that’s an important part,” he said.
“But, having lived overseas for 16 years and I worked in lots of different countries, I can tell you I cannot think of another country that has this level where we actually come together on Waitangi Day with all of our differences – and yet despite all of that we’re still determined on a path forward together.
“I still think it’s quite special that we can – despite tension, despite frustration – still show up and actually engage in a process and then in a conversation with each other on this.”
Luxon said there had been “very constructive” conversations during his time at Akaroa on “a range of topics”.
“We feel very excited to leave here, actually more determined than ever that there’s a lot more that we can work together on and to deliver for New Zealanders,” he said.
While the mood in Akaroa was positive, the Waitangi Day dawn service – marking the 185th year since the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi – featured a strong political tone, with one speaker referencing division caused by the Treaty Principles Bill.
Act leader David Seymour – the architect of the bill – was alongside the thousands that travelled to the Treaty Grounds before daybreak.
A sympathetic audience welcomed Methodist Church president Te Aroha Rountree’s assessment that the bill represented the Crown filing for divorce from a “blissfully unaware” Māori.
Her kōrero also featured condemnation of Luxon’s speech at last year’s service.
Seymour, who sat without showing any obvious reaction during Rountree’s address, gave a short speech but focused on New Zealand’s potential without direct reference to his bill.
After the service, Seymour told reporters Rountree’s comments were akin to a “backbencher’s speech from a left-wing politician”.
“I heard it all but there wasn’t anything new there,” he said.
“Ultimately people will be judged on what they say and if they wonder why church attendance is in free-fall ... it’s because people try to politicise things like that.”
On Wednesday Seymour’s mic was taken away and protesters turned their backs during his Waitangi speech.
Earlier this week Ngāpuhi leaders signalled the potential return of Waitangi’s pōwhiri for Parliamentarians to the newly renovated Te Tii Marae.
A dawn service was held on Monday to mark the completion of significant renovations to the 101-year-old wharenui on the Lower Treaty Grounds – its full name Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840.
Situated by land where He Whakaputanga (Declaration of Independence) was signed in 1835 and where chiefs debated whether to sign Te Tiriti five years later, Te Tii Marae was home of discourse between politicians and mana whenua during the annual Waitangi celebrations.
In 2018, after clashes between local hapū members, politicians and journalists, it was decided the official pōwhiri for MPs should move to the meeting house, Te Whare Rūnanga, on the Upper Treaty Grounds.
The tensions led to some Prime Ministers refusing to attend Waitangi celebrations in Waitangi - until Luxon last year – and a more settled pōwhiri that was traditionally held the day before Waitangi Day.
At that powhiri this year, leaders from National, Act and New Zealand First fronted up to Northland’s Māori leaders on their policies, some of which have received widespread opposition such as Act’s Treaty Principles Bill.
Ngāpuhi NZ First Minister Shane Jones condemned the pōwhiri, saying it was a “circus” and endorsing the prospect of moving the event back to its original location.
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