OPINION
Christopher Luxon’s signature rhetorical move was on vivid display again this week as he first appeared to rule out, then to only kinda, sorta rule back in, the prospect of going into coalition with Te Pāti Māori. This big-step-forward-half-step-back manoeuvre, known to ballroom dancing aficionados as the chassé, is Luxon’s trusty tried and true. On February 1 last year, Luxon denied climate change was the major challenge facing New Zealand – until, hours later, he conceded it kinda, sorta was. Same-sex marriage is a “complicated issue”, Luxon insisted in August 2021, until clarifying 24 hours later that there was nothing complicated about it. A year earlier, sexuality was a “matter of personal choice” to Luxon until it was no such thing. Likewise on abortion, vaccine mandates and China policy, Luxon has lurched rightward only to retreat to the muddled middle in response to the first sign of a backlash. Watching from the sidelines, Luxon’s deputy PM-in-waiting and celebrity ballroom dancer David Seymour may well admire the deft footwork but must thank his lucky stars nothing of the sort is expected of him.
After all, Seymour, uniquely in our politics, is immune to backlash - taken as newsworthy enough to report his every utterance but not seriously enough to warrant scrutiny.
Take his recent turn on the Max Key podcast, where he guffawed over the purported stupidity of outgoing PM Jacinda Ardern, a woman whose career and record of accomplishment leaves him in the dust.
Compare the mild pushback to this egregious outburst to the nationwide clamour that greeted these remarks of Greens co-leader Marama Davidson, made moments after being side-swiped by a motorcycle at a protest in support of the trans community: “I am a violence prevention minister and I know who causes violence in the world, it is white, cis men.”