Bold to rule out working with Te P¯ati M¯aori
GET used to seeing National leader Chris Luxon out and about in Otago and Southland. Having been in Mosgiel last Saturday for the party’s southern region conference, he fronted at public meetings in Queenstown on Thursday and Alexandra yesterday as part of National’s ‘‘Get NZ Back on Track’’ tour.
While that all sounds very rock star, there were few pyrotechnics in Mr Luxon’s speech last Saturday. Although the wretched weather meant that Southern Say arrived a couple of minutes after Mr Luxon started speaking, on available evidence there was just the one break for applause during delivery and the crowd was hardly stamping and roaring at its conclusion.
To be fair, this was a speech to the well and truly converted rather than a rollicking election eve rally trying to sway undecided voters, but even so, if you were backing this particular horse in October you might have wanted to see greater evidence that it was ready to run a big race.
That sole ovation Mr Luxon received came when he said National did not favour cogovernance, saying New Zealanders should receive targeted support based on need, not race.
While being prepared to work with Ma¯ori equally, it had to be on a level playing field, he said.
‘‘We are all equal citizens under the law; one person, one vote.’’
You may recall that earlier that week Mr Luxon had ruled out National working with Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori after the election.
To which some may have said ‘‘so what?’’, given it seems incredibly unlikely that Debbie Ngarewa Packer or Rawiri Waititi want to work with National. But go back 15 years and it seemed equally unlikely that National could work with Tariana Turia, Pita Sharples or the Ma¯ori Party.
But they did, and very effectively, too. Politics is the art of never saying never, and it was bold of Mr Luxon to say ‘‘no’’ so soon in the electoral race.
Equally, Mr Luxon’s adamant stance on cogovernance contains a smidgeon of bravery. Again, you might say ‘‘so what?’’ given that
National’s base and natural conservative inclination is instinctively uneasy about the concept. But to win in 2023 National will need to secure more of the undecided middle ground of voters than Labour. A decent, perhaps a pivotal, percentage of those voters may find National’s economic prescription appealing but are also socially liberal and less sure about slamming cogovernance and National eschewing Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori.
Kicking back in the Taieri Bowling Club’s committee room after his speech, Mr Luxon was in an expansive mood and happy to delve into the philosophic reasoning behind each stance.
‘‘We can have a single education system, not two. We can have a single health system, not two. We can target people on the basis of their needs and may deliver those services through communitybased organisations — it might be Ma¯ori trusts, it might be the Salvation Army for housing, for example.
‘‘We are very interested in improving outcomes for Ma¯ori
. . . the issues and concerns of Ma¯ori are the same issues: cost of living, health, housing, education, law and order. For Ma¯ori, cogovernance is low down on their hierarchy of issues that they want us to focus on as a government.’’
Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori had a ‘‘separatist’’ agenda and was mainly focused on constitutional arrangements, whereas he and National wanted to secure outcomes, Mr Luxon said.
‘‘It (Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori) is a very different party today to what it was. Under Tariana and Pita it was a party which believed in localism and devolution, local iwi working with local district councils on management of local natural resources — I’m highly supportive of that and it’s completely aligned with our values.
‘‘But when we start to see a desire for a separate Parliament, separate Ma¯ori health arrangements, a separate criminal justice system, that (Treaty) settlements aren’t full and final . . . it is a party which has gone in a different direction.’’
Ma¯oridom had a diverse set of views within it and Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori did not speak as a monolithic voice for all Ma¯ori, Mr Luxon said.
‘‘I just don’t buy the argument that because you are not supportive of Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori that you are not supporting Ma¯ori.’’
Mr Luxon’s argument will have ample chance to be tested. National is running candidates in at least two Ma¯ori seats this election, the first time it has fielded a candidate in any of them for years. Taking on race issues in town halls is one thing, tackling them on marae is quite another.
And making them a central issue in an election campaign is, again, a bold step. New Zealand feels very much like it is at a transition point between acknowledgement of Treaty rights and what full acceptance of acknowledgement of those rights actually means.
It is a conversation the country needs to have, but Mr Luxon might have dived into it before everyone is ready. It needs to be a nuanced and reasoned conversation, but is an election campaign conducive to constructive debate?
It feels very much like we are going to find out.
What till your boat comes in
Shock news this week that despite Labour Dunedin list MP Rachel Brooking having been appointed oceans and fisheries minister some weeks ago, she still hasn’t actually been on a trip out to sea on a boat. Hopefully some fishing or charter company will swiftly remedy this so that she can survey her new domain.