100% Pure Luxon.
Prime Minister without responsibility.
An apology up front.
This is the third newsletter in a row I’ve written about the same thing. On Sunday it was the events and comments of the day, Monday was the response from MPs. Today I’d like to talk about the person that I think bears the responsibility for this situation.
So my apologies. I did make a couple of half hearted attempts at other subjects, I considered just taking a day off, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what’s the only game in town right now - the intentions of the coalition towards Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Christopher Luxon is a man who likes to distance himself from things. Responsibility is best held, and measured, elsewhere.
He likes to be the boss, not one of the team. Which is why when allocating out the ministerial responsibilities he handed himself - none. Just the most basic of basics. John Key and Jacinda Ardern both managed to take on other responsibilities, but not Luxon, he will focus on being in charge.
Luxon also likes to distance himself from unpleasant things, leaving others to be the face of things he himself stands for, lest they go badly and he be forced to recant. Like the things in his coalition agreement.
Some of us enjoyed a laugh at how terrible a negotiator Luxon must be when we looked at the agreement and saw that it was full of things from the ACT and NZ First manifestos, but had bugger all from National’s. Obviously while appreciating that it’s hard to get something from nothing.
But the truth is that Luxon as the senior partner, the only one of the three who could claim any sort of approximation of a mandate for their policies, is responsible, and must be held responsible, for everything in that agreement.
Luxon might consider it a Faustian pact for which he was willing to pay any price to be Prime Minister. But there are consequences.
However these things work out he must own them and he will forever be associated with them, even should he feign disinterest.
Take for example this current issue, with ACT’s desire to redefine the treaty. Now it’s all too easy to blame David Seymour for this appalling plan, and you should, but that plan doesn’t get off the ground, it isn’t given legs to run, without the agreement of Luxon.
He may wish to sit back and wash his hands of it, saying it’s not his circus. But it is your circus Christopher.
They are your clowns, it is your circus, and you are the ringmaster. The person who must, above all others, be held accountable and responsible for opening this can of worms that the creeps in the ACT party want unleashed.
Whatever else Luxon achieves, maybe some tax cuts, certainly large capital gains for those in the game, he’ll forever be remembered as the man who was willing to unleash a long protracted racial argument in this country, under the banner of seeking unity.
Sorry Christopher, but we all knew what Seymour and Peters were like before this. How they would utilise ignorance and racial division to get votes. But did you imagine, when you were a boy dreaming of this, that you’d be considered a racist by many of the people you sought to lead? If not outright so, then at least for using the same populist tactics - even though you know it’s not right to do so.
Perhaps I’m giving you too much credit, but I hope not.
Maybe you looked at those scenes of Waitangi in recent years, peaceful and to most a beautiful occasion. Labour and the Greens, including your predecessor, operating the BBQ and symbolically serving and feeding the people. Did it make you think - that’ll be me one day?
Well it’s not Christopher. It’s never going to be you. You have set out your stall and there is nothing for Māori on offer. Not only that but you want to take from them things they’ve already fought hard to regain.
The Treaty and the process of seeking redress are not perfect. But because we have them we’re much better off - all of us - than, for example, our cousins over the ditch.
Look at the ugly debate over there last year, with the Indigenous Voice referendum. Rather than taking the country forward it poured salt into wounds and gave voice to views that you would hope were dying out, but sadly aren’t.
And now you, Christopher Luxon, have chosen to open the door to that here.
I think it’s despicable, and if you aren’t in fact a racist then I hope part of you finds it despicable too. Not only that, but that you’ll soon find the courage to stand up and say so.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Have you ever considered, Christopher, why so many people are angry about this? Not only Māori, but pakeha too?
Those of us who live in an Aotearoa where some of the people we love, perhaps the person we’re married to, or someone we’re the grandparent of, a work colleague or a friend, are Māori. The first people of this land.
But it’s not just about knowing people. Although it’s true that familiarity kills ignorance, or to put it another way, we don’t fear the things we know. It’s not about whatever relationships we might have. It’s about what’s right
You know what’s right Christopher, I think you do. Just like those of us who are proud to call ourselves tangata tiriti know it, just as tangata whenua know. I’m really not sure David knows. But most of us know that what you’re doing is wrong.
Just like canning Smokefree legislation was wrong. Just like ditching Fair Pay Agreements was wrong.
I reckon you should forget about turning the country around, as you talked about at your retreat last week. Just for a moment, and turn yourself around instead. Go on - the full one hundred and eighty!
You need to stop being a manager and start being a leader. And leaders do not take the rights of their own people from them. Well, not good ones anyway.
But I’ve got some good news Christopher. Not the kind that you learned in that church but seem to have forgotten, but nevertheless a truth that will bring you some enlightenment.
This is it, you ready?
You don’t have to be afraid.
You just don’t have to. The treaty of Waitangi is not a threat to us, to pakeha. It’s the basis of our right to live here too. The agreement by which we get to live in this beautiful place, to share in its resources, and all we have to do is respect the rights and traditions of the people who were here before us.
It’s the bargain of the fucking century!
Sorry Christopher, I don’t usually swear much in these, but I’m really feeling this one. A lot of us are, because it’s just not right.
Most of all - don’t be afraid of Seymour or Peters. I reckon people would respect you a bit more if you stood up against some of the things they want. Not just the people who voted for you either.
You know those of us over here on the other side of things, almost half the country that didn’t vote for you or your mates.
We’ve got some philosophical differences with you over cutting social services to give tax cuts and pruning workers rights, but those things kind of go with the left/right territory and it’ll swing back no doubt in a while. Especially, just quietly, if you don’t sort out that cost of living for your squeezed middle!
But there are other things you can do to reach across the divide that might earn you our respect, if not our votes. This isn’t one of them.
C’mon Christopher you want to be seen as a great manager of NZ Inc, running a tight and prosperous ship. You go do that, and do it well. But don’t do this.
I can’t work out whether you’re doing it because you’d rather that people were distracted and marching in the street over attacks on the Treaty, than against public service cuts or the cost of living. Whether you were just not very good at negotiating and gave the farm away to manage the beanstalk. Or if you’re just scared to do what’s right.
Regardless of which it is, I’d be distancing myself from this loudly and clearly if I was you. Because you can’t avoid responsibility for this Christopher.
If Aotearoa spends the next year in an ugly and bitter argument over race we will know exactly who is responsible.
100% purely Christopher Luxon, the 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand, who is most remembered for …
Is this really what you want it to be for Christopher?
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You made the right decision to write about this. As usual you have zeroed in on the most pertinent points and skewered him! I especially enjoyed the bit where you noted his reluctance to actually stand up and take responsibility for anything while preferring to just manage. I think he might be just a little scared of Winnie.
That's it in a nutshell - right there!! It's not hard to understand!
"You don’t have to be afraid.
You just don’t have to. The treaty of Waitangi is not a threat to us, to pakeha. It’s the basis of our right to live here too. The agreement by which we get to live in this beautiful place, to share in its resources, and all we have to do is respect the rights and traditions of the people who were here before us."
BOOM! Easy as!