Justified outrage

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, November 15th, 2024 - 46 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, david seymour, Maori Issues, maori party, political parties, Politics, Shane Jones, treaty settlements - Tags:

There were some dramatic scenes in Parliament yesterday during the introduction of Act’s dog whistle Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. A better name would be the Dog Whistle Act Party Damaging of Race Relations for Political Advantage Bill but I suspect this would not be agreed to. Although it would be good to see opposition parties try and rename the bill.

Parliament yesterday was fascinating.

Willie Jackson was thrown out for calling David Seymour a liar and refusing to back down.

Most of Aotearoa sided with Willie.

Because Seymour has been so passive aggressive about it. Imagining wanting to have a debate but wanting to exclude the best legal brains from the debate because they essentially said that your ideas were silly?

A proper debate needs to include everyone. Including those who know what they are talking about.

Willie’s treatment was blown away by the performance of Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke who led an outstanding haka in Parliament and was subsequently named for her efforts.

Here is the video.

This forced the speaker to suspend Parliament.

I am sure there will be a privileges committee inquiry following a complaint by David Seymour and the Act Party.

They will no doubt claim victimhood about this. Althought I am sure they are privately pleased at the response their bill has invoked.

Shane Jones was on the radio this morning criticising TPM’s performance because if there is to be a future for the treaty there should be mutual respect.

He should say this to David Seymour. Act’s campaign shows absolutely no sign of mutual respect.

And former National Cabinet Minister Chris Finlayson has a strong warning for his party. From Anneke Smith at Radio New Zealand:

Finlayson said it was inevitable the legislation would cause “great damage” to National’s relationship with Māori, saying many MPs clearly did not know the party’s history.

“There’s a school of thought that says a lot of people in the National Party today aren’t perhaps aware of the liberal conservative traditions of the party and the work that was done over many generations by people like Ralph Hanan, Duncan MacIntyre, Jim Bolger, Doug Graham, me.

“Maybe they need to go back and look at their history and look at the commitment that the National Party has made … not expecting any votes out of it but because it was the right thing to do.

“A lot of, maybe, people in the National Party today are more concerned about their careers than about the history and traditions of the National Party.”

They can’t say they were not warned. And it is clear that Christopher Luxon did not understand that David Seymour would not only damage race relations but also the Government itself in the pursuit of dog whistled racist support when he negotiated their coalition agreement.

46 comments on “Justified outrage ”

  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    15 November 2024 at 9:22 am

    Willie earned his pay yesterday!

    Hana did well and is already a leader, not a future leader. The mantle has clearly been passed to younger Māori like Hikoi organiser Eru Kapa–Kingi. Articulate, the Kōhanga Reo generation.

    David Seymour will need to change tack before he gets “filled in” at some stage, such is the feeling about the division he is winding up. Despite the obvious statistical symptoms of post colonial fallout in Aotearoa NZ we have so far mercifully escaped the violence of other indigenous struggles–well, apart from state violence perhaps in terms of imprisonment and institutional racism.

    Progress was being made which Act seem determined to undo.

    Reply
    • thinker 1.1
      15 November 2024 at 9:38 am

      Substituting "Haka" for "Hand Jive" (if you can stretch your imagination that far ..)

      https://youtu.be/iV7YMQp-HhI?si=-uP2Uvb7OCzWvncp

      Reply
    • Patricia Bremner 1.2
      15 November 2024 at 7:17 pm

      Not just Act wanting to undo things agreed and implemented before. This is the first time both Maori and Tau Iwi have shown their feelings.." I clearly remember Luxon saying he naturally aligned with Act but did not know Winston.' Well birds of a feather. Seymour “war dance” comment what a goof. Finlayson A real thinking Politician .

      Reply
  2. Dennis Frank 2
    15 November 2024 at 9:24 am

    Lux was operating from a position of weakness. Given how lame Labour had been in its second term, it was obvious the country needed a positive alternative. It's just as obvious that Lux is in no position to provide that, so a continual poll slide is likely.

    I agree with you that Finlayson's stance is most significant. Good on him for articulating it, and the onus is on young Nats in parliament to give him follow-through.

    Reply
  3. thinker 3
    15 November 2024 at 9:31 am

    I'm not getting more conservative in my dotage, but I respect what Finlayson said here.

    I was brought up in a conservative household and possibly might be conservative myself if I saw a right wing that put people at the forefront of it's policies and actions – the utopian liberal right wing that Finlayson remembers, but I, with respect to his memory, do not.

    However, I think Finlayson is alluding to the fact that, within each wing of government, there are leaders who will be remembered as 'good', some less so.

    I wonder if history will remember Luxon as a carpetbagger who cobbled together a government of poorly aligned ideologies and sold out the country's path to true partnership for a few years' of the baubles of prime ministership.

    I tried to say it before and someone razzed my attempt, but I think Luxon genuinely can't see that even supporting this bill through it's first reading while confirming he will not allow it to go further is still going to be taken by Maori as a betrayal of friendship.

    In 2026, Luxon expects to go to Maori, asking them to pledge their support and trying to persuade Maori of National's concern for friendship and partnership. How he will do this will be interesting to watch, methinks.

    Reply
  4. Obtrectator 4
    15 November 2024 at 10:13 am

    As someone once remarked about BoJo (paraphrasing): he was happy as a wannabee Prime Minister and pleased to be an ex-Prime Minister – it was the bit in between that gave him grief.

    Reply
  5. Ad 5
    15 November 2024 at 10:13 am

    Opposition doing its job. Great to see.

    Reply
  6. Macro 6
    15 November 2024 at 10:56 am

    Shane Jones going on about respecting Parliament!!! He who used his parliamentary credit card to watch porn!

    Then calling Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke a "songbird". Disgusting man.

    Reply
    • SPC 6.1
      15 November 2024 at 12:17 pm

      Shane Jones auditioning for the role of one of the snakes?

      Reply
    • Tiger Mountain 6.2
      15 November 2024 at 12:37 pm

      One can only imagine the reaction if a Green, Labour or TPM MP had a similar spending record to that list…he was certainly a regular movie watcher by the looks of it…Mr Masturbation Jones–not fair perhaps, many are into self pleasuring, but not so many on the tax payer dollar.

      Reply
      • thinker 6.2.1
        15 November 2024 at 5:29 pm

        In future he'll be able to watch reruns of the approval of fast track projects and David Seymour dissing Maori and indigenous rights.

        Still repulsive, but much cheaper for the taxpayer.

        Reply
  7. SPC 7
    15 November 2024 at 11:13 am

    They can’t say they were not warned. And it is clear that Christopher Luxon did not understand that David Seymour would not only damage race relations but also the Government itself in the pursuit of dog whistled racist support when he negotiated their coalition agreement.

    Tis but a scratch, in one battle in a long war for Seymour and his sponsors.

    It is for the high ground in 2040.

    The one New Zealand agenda is to assimilate and subordinate the Treaty into a libertarian nexus, where the society is atomised down into each individual under a Atlas Network order to society (primacy of aggregated capital – oligarchy, protected by state power to silence protest/resistance).

    PS If they win, there is no reason for there to be a New Zealand nation state, and a few for being a state within Oz.

    Reply
  8. James Simpson 8
    15 November 2024 at 11:36 am

    I don't think Seymour could have hoped for a better first reading.

    His place in parliament is now rooted in the 10% of kiwis that wish to burn the treaty, and the scenes from yesterday will just empower that small racist clan.

    This is a very difficult issue to navigate now. The Nats will want to hold onto their own anti-Maori crowd so it will be interesting to see how they deal with their coalition partner.

    Reply
    • thinker 8.1
      15 November 2024 at 2:03 pm

      I stopped reading after "His place in parliament is now rooted" and recalled that in a few months he will be crowned Deputy PM.

      How happy that will make the 92% who didn't vote for him.

      Reply
    • I Feel Love 8.2
      15 November 2024 at 3:44 pm

      I think TPM also strengthened their base too, & gathered a few more, have you seen the crowds who have joined the hikoi?, & probably got a few fans amongst the growing 'anti-establishment' types who are looking for a political home. Love it.

      Reply
    • observer 8.3
      15 November 2024 at 4:04 pm

      Gordon Campbell sums it up (see sidebar feed, "Werewolf"):

      "Day One of the Treaty Principles Bill…and everyone got what they wanted, and did what they liked. …

      In the midst of it all, the only person with the power to stop this total waste of time and taxpayer money chose instead to blame somebody else, pack his bags and fly off to the site of the new Paddington Bear movie. We’re faced with six more months of this “debate” about our founding document."

      [end]

      (FWIW I still go for the cock-up theory rather then conspiracy theory. This is happening because, sitting in a hotel room last November, and impatient to get the negotiations done, Luxon thought "whatever, have your silly bill David, let's just get this document signed so I can become PM, it won't matter once I've got the job".

      The mystery is what the advisers were telling him. Luxon having zero insight is not a surprise, but the wiser heads must have had some idea of how this would unfold. And Seymour was never going to walk away from being in Cabinet, so the discussion should have been very short: "No bill, no way, and if you can't accept that then go and talk to Hipkins about supporting him and the Greens instead".

      End of negotiation.

      Reply
      • You_Fool 8.3.1
        16 November 2024 at 8:18 am

        I think that Seymour's stronghold in those negotiations was he was happy to roll the dice on a 2nd election, and lux didn't want that risk, so he caved.

        Reply
  9. Anne 9
    15 November 2024 at 12:51 pm

    What I find so reprehensible is we have a cowardly PM who arranged [or it was arranged on his behalf] for the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill to be brought forward by a week so he would be out of the country during the First Reading. It was scheduled to take place next Thurs, [21 Nov.] when he would have had no excuse for not attending – even though PM’s are not normally in the debating chamber on a Thursday. In short, he realised it was going to be an explosive moment so he did a runner.

    What he actually achieved was to fuel the already brimming outrage over Seymour's bill into a raging torrent of anger and frustration.

    Reply
    • SPC 9.1
      15 November 2024 at 1:03 pm

      The hikoi will be here waiting for him.

      Reply
    • thinker 9.2
      15 November 2024 at 2:14 pm

      Although I would hate to be NZPM at a conference of world leaders who would have been briefed about me supporting the introduction of a bill that drives a spike into my country's progress on indigenous relations, a bill which, on the day of it's introduction, I said was negative and stripped away decades of progress, then left the country to deal with it without me for cocktails and savouries and high-level chit-chat.

      If the other world leaders are queuing for selfies with the Lux, it won't be because of his statesmanship!!

      Reply
    • tWig 9.3
      15 November 2024 at 4:46 pm

      There was double duty of the push forwards: they tried to override a report from the Waitangi Tribunal that was due out. No doubt Tribunal people passed all nighters to get the Interim report out on such short notice.

      'In part two of the Waitangi Tribunals Interim Report – which was released suddenly on Tuesday – the Tribunal confirmed its previous recommendations but added one more. “We recommend the Crown give notice of a motion to the House of Representatives that it refer the Bill to the Tribunal under section 8(2) of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975.”

      Once a Bill is tabled the Tribunal loses jurisdiction, but Takitimu said in this case they are acting within their duties as a permanent commission of inquiry.'

      Reply
  10. roblogic 10
    15 November 2024 at 1:37 pm

    Tusiata Avia (2023 Poet of the Year, and irritant to David Seymour) wrote a brilliant poem about it already:

    https://tusiata.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-hana-rawhiti-maipi-clarke

    And today, Hana-Rawhiti rose –

    more than stood – she rose

    like Nafanua, goddess of war

    like Hine-nui-te-po, goddess of death

    like the wahine toa who is exactly like herself

    She rose from that place full of insects

    and she tore that white bill –

    [… read her Substack for the rest…]

    Reply
  11. Susie 11
    15 November 2024 at 3:27 pm

    In case anyone missed it: (Courtesy of Mountain Tui blog)

    Willie Jackson

    Chloe Swarbrick peak performance

    Haka full face (not Gerry Brownlee’s miserable face)

    Reply
  12. newsense 12
    15 November 2024 at 4:31 pm

    Luxon knows very little about NZ. He’s still figuring out MMP and he certainly doesn’t know any National Party MPs or PMs from more than 10 years ago. Let alone the nuance of their Treaty negotiations.

    They keep looking for a coherence in what he says, but he calls kiwis customers and applies a North American framework to most of it. Where we are small and inconsequential.

    Reply
    • observer 12.1
      15 November 2024 at 5:03 pm

      Agree 100%. That comes across in all kinds of ways, in non-political comments too. The USA is his comfort zone.

      Those on the left who think there's some masterful Machiavellian genius behind all this are giving him far too much credit. The explanation's simpler: Luxon is out of his depth, out of touch and basically rubbish at NZ politics.

      Reply
      • Patricia Bremner 12.1.1
        15 November 2024 at 7:43 pm

        Observer, It is Seymour who is an Atlas Acolyte. Luxon is a puppet, Hipkins told him he would be played.

        Reply
  13. tWig 13
    15 November 2024 at 4:47 pm

    Luxon was off overseas, and missed a large part of gradual societal changes from the 90s to 2010s.

    Reply
  14. Obtrectator 14
    15 November 2024 at 7:46 pm

    Just wondering: has anyone here ever read a 1976 novel called Broken October, by Quiet Earth author Craig Harrison?

    To grossly simplify the plot: a long-simmering political crisis finally boils over, the Treaty of Waitangi is stolen, and NZ ends up as a military-governed apartheid-style republic totally in the pockets of Australia and the USA. The putative date of these events is 1985.

    Though rather a far-fetched projection from the situation existing at the time of publication, it nonetheless had a disturbing tinge of plausibility. Thankfully things didn't turn out like that. But who's to say now that they couldn't after all?

    Reply
    • observer 15.1
      15 November 2024 at 9:46 pm

      Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says former MPs sometimes feel they can chip in and tell current ones what to do. …

      "The former MPs, some have a habit of coming in and passing judgement on the current people that are in there trying to navigate their way through difficult issues," Goldsmith told Midday Report when asked to respond.

      Cheers, Paul. So next time your old mate Don Brash sticks his oar in, make sure you let him know. Thanks.

      You'll be busy, because Don and his Hobson's Pledge crew are chiming in every week.

      Reply
      • Incognito 15.1.1
        15 November 2024 at 9:49 pm

        I’ve been thinking …

        Reply
      • Anne 15.1.2
        15 November 2024 at 11:28 pm

        Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says former MPs sometimes feel they can chip in and tell current ones what to do. …

        Far more likely the news media went to him, not the other way round.

        Seymour made a snarky comment yesterday when asked about Finlayson's comments. Something to the effect that… his words mean nothing because he did nothing when he was Treaty minister.

        Seymour is a liar!

        As Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Finlayson was successful in reaching an unprecedented number of financial Waitangi Treaty settlements (over nine years) including with iwi he had previously represented in private practice. He also chaired the Privileges Committee from 2012 to 2017. Being attorney-general had been Finlayson’s principal political ambition and he regarded it as “the highlight of [his] legal career.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Finlayson

        Reply
        • Kat 15.1.2.1
          16 November 2024 at 12:09 pm

          And this today on RNZ from Jenny Shipley…….“I just despise people who want to use a treasure – which is what the Treaty is to me – and use it as a political tool that drives people to the left or the right, as opposed to inform us from our history and let it deliver a future that is actually who we are as New Zealanders……I condemn David Seymour for his using this, asking the public for money to fuel a campaign that I think really is going to divide New Zealand in a way that I haven’t lived through in my adult life……………."

          WoW…..Jenny must be seething…like most of us…..

          Reply

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