PM’s message: ‘progress not perfection’
MPs have descended on Waitangi for commemorations marking the 180th anniversary of the signing of its eponymous treaty.
The week is surrounded by politics, not least National Leader Simon Bridges’ decision to take direct aim at NZ First, ruling them out of any coalition.
But events themselves often veered towards the apolitical. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, her family and senior government ministers were not overly pressed by any political topics at their main engagements. Politics was always lurking in the wings, but it was Ardern and the Government who occupied the stage.
At the unveiling of a statue of Dame Whina Cooper, the leader of the Ma¯ ori Land March in 1975, a hikoi calling on a resolution to the impasse at Ihuma¯tao briefly turned matters political. But marchers didn’t point the finger at Ardern – instead, one told me the problems went deeper.
‘‘She has other people she has to answer to, and she can’t say what she wants to say because of others behind her,’’ he said, comparing Ardern to Dame Whina as a ‘‘wahine toa’’.
In fact, it was the Prime Minister’s daughter, Neve, who seemed to grab attention at Panguru marae, Dame Whina’s final resting place. Apparently inheriting an environmental streak from her mother, Neve cleaned up attendees water bottles, taking them to a bin.
The Government wants to depoliticise Waitangi Day. You can’t take the politics out of the day completely of course, but it’s true that even the protests this year are not what they have been. There’s no mud slinging, and absolutely no projectile dildos.
But you can’t take the politics out of things completely. Winston Peters, responding to Bridges’ broadside on Sunday afternoon was unusually subdued.
Far from the usual bluster which he normally directs in Bridges’ direction, Peters instead said he didn’t deign to bother with National’s pivot: ‘‘I’m not going to give this the currency of respectability at this time.’’
Today will be the most political day of the week with MPs formally welcomed to Waitangi. The Government will be held to account for its record – the opposition faces no such challenge.
Ardern will lean into the challenge. She hasn’t shied away from questions over Ihuma¯ tao. She’ll acknowledge she asked Ma¯ ori at her first Waitangi as Prime Minister to hold her to account.
She’ll lay out her Government’s record with a message of progress not perfection. With a mood of overwhelming positivity following her every move at Waitangi, it would seem that message is likely to be accepted.