The Culture War Coalition

• mickysavage
• 1 month ago
• Categories: act, Christopher Luxon, Culture wars, david seymour, national, nz first, paul goldsmith, politicans, same old national, winston peters

We have just had yet another week of the Government manufacturing culture wars and picking fights. It really makes you wonder why they are there. Did National Act and NZ First MPs really get into politics to be grumpy and divisive and manufacture dissent? Or is this a cover so they can complete the real reason they became involved in politics and this was to enrich their already wealthy backers?

In no particular order we have recently seen:

• Arts Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith telling Te Papa to take down the defaced Treaty of Waitangi display even though he has no power to direct the Museum on what it should display. Christopher Luxon apparently had no idea that this was happening.
• Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announcing the end of work on establishing a Sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands a proposal that actually started with John Key. According to Jones “[t]here’s far too much misinformation, and I’ve had to put up with green muckery over this issue. There is already a host of protective measures there.”
• The announcement of brutal cuts to the Ministry of Pacific People which may see the numbers working there being slashed by 40%. This is way more than a 6.5% cut in funding. It really makes you wonder what the Government has against Pacific people. I guess this is not surprising when you remember that before the election David Seymour threatened to blow the ministry up.
• Having an absolute melt down on the fact that Auckland University has a space for Māori and Pacific students. Winston Peters claimed rather bizarrely that having the spaces was comparable to the Klu Klux Klan. Not to be out done David Seymour claimed that the spaces were segregationist.
• And Simeon Brown extending his tacky little culture war on cycleways by extending the attack to public transport with proposals that will increase the cost of living for all users of public transport.

Perhaps the most bizarre culture battle involved attacks on Hectors dolphins. This involved Russell Coutts, whose loyalty to the country was displayed when he left the Team New Zealand sailing franchise so that he could sail for the Swiss competitor Alinghi. He was then dumped from Alinghi after repeated violations of his duties which included refusing to helm Alinghi when requested to as well as his undisclosed involvement in the planning and development of a new race series.

He then set up the SailGP race series and elected to host a race in Lyttleton Harbour in the middle of a Hector’s Dolphin sanctuary. The presence of dolphins forced the cancellation of a race after the marine mammal management plan that SailGP had developed itself was applied. Coutts then publicly railed against the plan which he said had been “forced upon us” and said that he found “it astonishing the amount of influence iwi have over the authorities here in New Zealand”. He then questioned the expertise of Otago professor Liz Slooten and had a crack at the local harbourmaster.

David Williams in Newsroom has provided this perceptive comment:

[Williams] made the analogy about people not being allowed to drive because there’s a chance of being killed on the roads. “Inherently, as a society we accept an element of risk in our daily lives.”

The comparison is a weak one – even before you realise roads have traffic lights and speed limits to protect people. 

SailGP is operating, with a fragile social licence, in a marine mammal sanctuary. A better analogy would be allowing Formula One cars to race within a national park, near kiwi.

But this did not deter our leaders from having a rant about the subject. David Seymour repeated the weird analogy that sailing through the sanctuary was like driving a car. Christopher Luxon chipped in and said there was way too much red tape. And Winston Peters complained about power-drunk Government Departments.

Winston has also been busy with his breaching copyright and picking fights with UK musicians. He is clearly one who thinks that you should never let the chance of a culture battle go by.

But the most damaging recent incident raises questions about how solid the coalition is.

Both the Act and NZ First coalition agreements promise to “[r]estore the right to local referendum on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards”.

This was recently considered by cabinet with two options, either proceed with the policy or delay it.

Cabinet decided to delay.

A clearly disappointed David Seymour responded by saying that the policy was on track and that he would not engage with leakers. Christopher Luxon tried to blame the public service while at the same time said it was not a biggie. Makie Sherman confirmed that the leak did not come from the public service.

If the policy is not advanced quickly then one aspect, the holding of referenda for Māori seats established under the last Government’s reign will not be able to occur in time for the referenda to happen with the next Local Government elections due in 2025. I bet that Seymour and Peters would prefer that it happened even earlier than that so that elections for these seats in 2025 do not have to be held.

You have to wonder who leaked the news. It is a policy both NZ First and Act support. One wonders if Tama Potaka who must be worried at the damage being caused to Government Māori relations by this sort of redneck posturing may have been involved.

But the past week highlights how obsessed the Government is with petty culture battles while ignoring the big issues. Like dealing with climate change, child poverty and homelessness.