Waitangi Day firsts for leaders
All of a sudden, the Waitangi Day barbecue seems a long time ago. Cooked up by former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, it was a nice piece of political symbolism that related to hopeful promises Ardern made at her first outing to Waitangi in 2018, when she talked about child poverty and Ma¯ori wellbeing. She urged Ma¯ori at future events to criticise her government’s progress.
Naysayers might have dismissed the barbecue as mere symbolism or an exercise in communication over substance. But those who have just lived through the Auckland floods will know the value of good communication.
The cancellation of the 2023 barbecue predated Ardern’s resignation. It was said in December that it was off because of security concerns that seemed all too familiar in an overheated political year.
It remains to be seen if dire predictions about a disrupted election campaign and census come to pass now that the political temperature has dropped somewhat.
In the Ardern era, hopes about co-governance and Treaty relationships were distorted into dark mutterings about separatism and control. It has often been said that the Government did a poor job of explaining what co-governance meant, particularly around the contentious issue of Three Waters reform.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is clear that communication has failed when he says he wants ‘‘to make sure we are bringing all New
Zealanders with us in that conversation’’, while also arguing that some have exploited confusion about the idea of co-governance.
Three Waters and cogovernance dominated his first meeting with the Iwi Chairs Forum yesterday. It seems likely that cogovernance will soon be presented in a less loaded way, perhaps using words such as ‘‘partnership’’.
Two reports released by the Human Rights Commission yesterday provide some background.
Ki te whaiao, ki te ao Ma¯rama is a community engagement report for developing a national action plan against racism. The United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommended to the Government in 2017 that it develop such a plan, which it fully committed to after the 2019 mosque attacks in Christchurch.
The report will not be welcomed by all New Zealanders, especially those hoping for a less explosive discourse about race in politics than we have had since 2019.
The report and an accompanying one, Maranga Mai!, call on the Government to commit to constitutional transformation and co-governance.
The Ra¯tana celebrations a fortnight ago acted as a rehearsal for the political stances of Hipkins and Opposition leader Christopher Luxon before their first Waitangi appearances as leaders.
Luxon’s claim that the cogovernance debate had been ‘‘divisive and immature’’ suggest that race issues and co-governance will be central to National’s strategy in 2023.