Category: Politics

Source: Radio New Zealand

Analysis: For once, it was the opposition feeling some heat at Waitangi, as Te Pati Māori’s internal turmoil spilled out on the ātea.

The public airing of dirty laundry was one of the few moments of note at this year’s political pōwhiri, with Thursday’s events otherwise proceeding much as everyone expected.

Protesters’ plans to block ministers from the Treaty Grounds came to naught, squashed quickly by security. And the activists left well before the coalition leaders had even begun to speak.

The government speeches were met by some stray heckles, sure, and some sustained grumbling, but nothing like the theatre of the past two years.

Perennial agitators Winston Peters and David Seymour seemed almost disappointed at the muted response, with the former clearly trying to provoke a reaction from the crowd.

For his part, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon delivered a well-foreshadowed address, preaching the importance of working through differences with words and debate.

It’s advice that perhaps Te Pati Māori should have taken on board.

Anticipation was high ahead of the party’s Waitangi appearance, its first time fronting to the north since the co-leaders’ no-show at Ngāpuhi’s emergency hui late last year.

On Monday, the party was sitting in court, with its out-and-then-in-again MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi fighting to reverse her expulsion and be permanently reinstated.

In the most blistering of speeches on Thursday, her son Eru Kapa-Kingi upbraided Te Pati Māori – “sort yourselves out” – lamenting the “silencing” of his mother and the wider region.

At first, Waititi appeared to offer an olive branch in response: “I can hear the anger and feel the pain”.

He even extended an apology of sorts: “If I have done you wrong, I offer you my head.”

But any such contrition was short-lived. The speech was immediately followed by a haka tautoko which saw Waititi’s wife Kiri Tamihere-Waititi advance on the host side.

As she squared off with Eru Kapa-Kingi, eyeballing him, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi shouted from the marae’s veranda: “hoki atu” or “go back”.

Any brief hopes of reconciliation were dashed.

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi underlined the point later as she stood to speak, defiant: “I’m not going anywhere.”

Speaking to media afterwards, Waititi said the party’s next steps would depend on the court’s judgement.

But he bristled at Te Pati Māori being singled out, claiming many parties had shown division before.

He turned his sights on others in the opposition, decrying Labour’s efforts to try win back the Māori seats.

“Labour don’t do MMP very well,” Waititi declared. “A vote for Labour is now a vote for New Zealand First.”

The comments could apply just as well to the Greens, who used Thursday’s events to unveil their own candidates in the Māori electorates.

Notably, they include a former lawyer for Te Pati Māori, Tania Waikato, and a former Te Pati Māori candidate, Heather Te Au-Skipworth.

Greens’ co-leader Marama Davidson made short shrift of Waititi’s suggestion that they leave the Māori seats alone: “Nobody owns any seats. Nobody owns any votes.”

Labour and the Greens came to Waitangi, hoping to present a united front and to draw a contrast with the warring factions within the coalition. They leave further away from that goal than closer.

Asked what he made of the opposition’s showing at Waitangi on Thursday, Luxon dodged the question, saying that was not his focus.

But Finance Minister Nicola Willis could not help herself: “They looked messy,” she said, a smile on her face.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Prime Minister and other parliamentarians have been welcomed to the lower Treaty Grounds at Waitangi.

A pōwhiri was held at 11am, before they gathered for speeches.

Christopher Luxon, who was absent from the Treaty Grounds last year, had promised to bring a message of unity.

After meeting with Māori leaders at the Iwi Chairs Forum on Wednesday, he said they were “aligned” on issues like localism, devolution and lifting Māori outcomes in health, education and law and order.

Follow how the day unfolded in our liveblog below:

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Prime Ministers Christopher Luxon’s speech has been heckled at throughout his 10 minute speech at the Treaty Grounds.

During his speech, Luxon spoke of the recent weather events, the effected communities and the country’s sense of identity, among other things.

The hecklers interrupted his speech multiple times throughout, with some interruptions lasting up to 10 seconds.

“We’ve had enough,” one person yelled.

“Did you bring any KFC?” another asked.

One person can also be heard yelling “treason”.

Luxon said it had been a challenging build-up to Waitangi, particularly for communities affected by severe weather.

“The atmosphere surrounding Waitangi Day and the Treaty itself have sometimes been very heated, and we’ve seen that again today, and that’s for good reason because part of national life in New Zealand is that we do debate difficult things.”

Luxon said attending Waitangi was a “tremendous privilege”.

He sought to reassure people the RMA reforms would contain strict provisions to respect Treaty settlements.

Defending the government’s approach to health targets, Luxon said “should not ask about their family tree but ask about their need”.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The prime minister and other MPs were welcomed back onto the Waitangi Treaty Grounds on Thursday morning as the long weekend gets underway.

RNZ photographers and journalists were on the ground covering the events.

Here’s how the day unfolded in pictures.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Coalition and opposition MPs will face the Waitangi crowds on Thursday morning, making their election year pitch after being officially welcomed to the Treaty Grounds.

The past few years at Waitangi have delivered political fireworks and MPs bracing for, if not necessarily expecting, a reprise when politicians are welcomed with a pōwhiri from about 11am.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who was absent from the Treaty Grounds last year, promised to bring a message of unity.

After meeting with Māori leaders at the Iwi Chairs Forum on Wednesday, he said they were “aligned” on issues like localism, devolution and lifting Māori outcomes in health, education and law and order.

“Got a lot of work to do, but we’re making some good progress on a number of areas we want to continue to accelerate.”

While there may be tensions in Crown-Māori relations, he said he was focused on finding and building on common ground.

He rejected Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ claims the government was anti-Treaty and therefore anti-Māori.

Hipkins, who committed to rolling back the Regulatory Standards Bill and ending the review of Treaty clauses, argued the government did not understand the consequences of its actions.

“They’re actually opening up a whole lot of areas that previously had been settled, and they’re opening up the Crown to a whole lot of additional potential legal challenges in doing so, and they’re just not being upfront with people about that.”

He said his speech at Waitangi would be future-focused.

“Creating a New Zealand where everybody can thrive, where we focus on bringing people together to address the challenges that face our country. I’ll be talking a bit about the fact I want to create a New Zealand where young people want to stay and create their futures.”

Green co-leader Marama Davidson – who stood alongside Hipkins in a show of unity on Tuesday – said the party was in Waitangi to make clear that Te Tiriti o Waitangi was an important part of creating an Aotearoa that people deserved.

“Te Tiriti is unity. I’ve been up here for the week now and even already we can see the hou kainga, the hosts here, they’re just about looking after people, keeping people safe, hoping that people have a good time, enjoy themselves – and that this is what Te Tiriti is all about.

“We’ve seen that come through … more and more people are showing us the leadership on the ground. It’s time for politicians to act.”

Hipkins expected the coalition parties to be in for a rough ride, saying New Zealand First deputy Shane Jones’ questioning of the reasons behind senior MP Peeni Henare’s resignation was an attempt to distract from 24 hours that were “probably not going to turn out very well for them”.

Jones said he would give as good as he got.

“If anyone thinks they’re going to serve invective up to the Matua and not get return fire, turn your cameras on tomorrow,” he said.

“There’s quite a lot of volatility happening in Māori politics at the moment, but as I said in my speech, we’re here to affirm. The governor said he iwi tahi tātou, together we are one people … sadly the day is blighted by performative antics year after year, but this year we’re going to make sure that Kiwis bear in mind this is our national day.”

It’s a safe bet ACT leader David Seymour will again provoke a reaction. He told RNZ he was expecting the usual spectrum of views.

“There’ll be those who don’t want to engage and are quite rude, there’ll be those who are very grateful that the ACT party’s message and voice is included in the day,” he said.

His message would be that ACT believed in an entitlement to equal rights and dignity “regardless of when our ancestors settled here”, but deflected when asked if the Treaty Principles Bill’s demise would dampen the rhetoric.

“I suspect that the temperature will drop a notch because Te Pāti Māori have turned on each other rather than the rest of New Zealand.

“There’ll be the usual angry people. What I always say to people about Waitangi is, if you’ve spent time there, don’t just go by the few seconds that make the six o’clock news.”

How Te Pati Māori is received given its months of internal turmoil will be keenly observed by all sides of politics.

A court case to resolve a dispute between the leadership and ousted MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi is ongoing.

Kapa-Kingi will be present for the pōwhiri.

Te Pāti Māori will be present too. Its co-leaders did not respond to requests for comment.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says the government is anti-Treaty and therefore anti-Māori, but the Prime Minister argues iwi leaders have worked to find “common ground”.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon rejects Hipkins’ claims, calling the Iwi Chairs Forum on Wednesday a positive engagement and the best forum he has participated in.

He said the six different sub-regions had their say, and put questions to him and Finance Minister Nicola Willis.

Ngāti Wai Chair Aperahama Edwards said the meeting with the government was “beneficial”, but there was still a lot of pain among Māori compared to the last time Luxon was present in 2024.

“Our people are hurting, and we’re mindful of that, but there’s also a calm here as well, and an optimism at the thought of what sort of change might be coming,” Edwards said.

Luxon was in Waitangi with a contingent of government ministers ahead of the political pōwhiri taking place on Thursday, which he will attend.

Māori-Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka said the Iwi Chairs meeting was “robust” and “interrogative”, and an “exchange”.

“There needs to be an exchange of ideas, an exchange of investigative queries, but also a sense of optimism and progress, and that’s what we’ve seen today.”

Luxon said the meeting was not combative or contentious, but “direct”.

“We’re direct too,” he said.

He said they discussed the work to lift outcomes for Māori in the context of health, law and order, the economy, infrastructure development and investment and education.

“And lo and behold, iwi want to do exactly the same thing to advance their people as well. So there’s really good alignment.”

Earlier, Hipkins had called the government “anti-Treaty”, referring to the Treaty Principles Bill.

Asked for more examples Hipkins said the pledge to remove Treaty references from some legislation, the removal of Te Reo Māori from school and the deprioritising of the Māori language on street signs and government departments.

“They’re having passports redesigned just so that they can reorder the words. All of these things are just a big step backwards for New Zealand.”

When asked if Labour would reverse changes to the Marine and Coastal Area Act and the removal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act, which have been criticised by Māori, Hipkins said the party had not made any final decisions.

He said he wanted to move the country forward in a way that “brings people with us”.

“Where any government moves too quickly and doesn’t bring people with them, you run the risk of the pendulum swinging back further in the other direction, on the next political cycle.

“And I don’t want to see that continue, so we will be focused on sustainable change that brings people along.”

Hipkins said his discussions with the Forum had been “constructive” but acknowledged the iwi leaders would work with whoever the government was.

When asked whether the government was “anti-Māori” Luxon accepted “ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill was incredibly challenging”.

But he had spoken openly to iwi leaders through that period and afterward, and he pointed to the meeting on Wednesday, saying “what we’ve got to find is the common ground”.

“Let’s focus on the common ground, the 70 percent that we can agree on, that we can actually move and advance forward … let’s do that.”

Willis said the most practical way the Crown upholds the Treaty of Waitangi was through progressing Treaty Settlements, which she said the government had made “good progress on”.

Asked whether Māori could have confidence Luxon would not agree to the likes of the Treaty Principles Bill again, Luxon said that was “absolutely ruled out”.

He said despite tensions through challenges like the Treaty Principles Bill, the government had continued the conversation with iwi leaders at the same time.

“The conversation that we had today is no different from the nature of the conversations that I’ve been having over the last two years.”

Iwi leader Tukoroirangi Morgan echoed that sentiment, calling the meeting “productive” and saying iwi leaders were in a position where “we need to get stuff done”.

Despite being election year, work needed to continue, he said.

“And the government needs to be conscious that actually working in a much more strategic way to complete action plans, business plans, all of the stuff that we’ve been talking to them for a long, long time should get done.”

Morgan said Luxon was “very committed” to the Treaty relationship.

“We have to try and find creative ways of working with the government in the face of tough economic times, there are still opportunities, and we need to take those opportunities.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Labour Party says the government is in denial about the damage it has done to New Zealand’s economy, after the latest job market figures.

Unemployment has risen to its highest level in more than a decade, with more people chasing work than jobs created, while wage growth slows further.

Stats NZ numbers showed the unemployment rate rising to 5.4 percent in the three months ended December, from 5.3 percent in the previous quarter.

It was the highest level since March 2015 and worse than forecast by economists and the Reserve Bank.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said while she would prefer the unemployment rate was lower, the underlying details were positive.

“We are working very hard to get unemployment to come down. What is positive to see is that 15,000 more jobs were created in the past three months, that the hours people are working are increasing, that more people are feeling optimistic about getting a job, so are entering that workforce.

“So that’s really positive to see and what economists are interpreting that data to mean is that we are getting that stabilization and recovery in the economy.”

‘Incredibly embarrassing’ – Labour

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the latest unemployment figures were an indictment on the coalition.

“I don’t think the government can spin their way out of this. They’ve been saying for over a year now that unemployment had peaked and that things were getting better, that there were green shoots in the economy, and for so many New Zealand families, things have continued to get worse.

“These are real people with real lives that cannot find work when they need it. Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis, the whole government need to own up to the fact that they are making things worse, not better.

“This is incredibly embarrassing for Nicola Willis, but it’s worse for the families who can’t find work when they need it.”

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said the figures showed the three party coalition was a “government of despair”.

“There are more people without jobs and without income now, under this government, than at any time in over ten years.

“Food banks are overwhelmed. Homelessness is everywhere.

“Those who are fortunate enough to have jobs still have it tough. Groceries and bills continue to rise ahead of wages for many workers,” Davidson said.

“A just government would be fighting to make sure everyone had the means to have a good job, food on the table, and a safe place to call home.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones is questioning the circumstances behind Labour MP Peeni Henare’s shock resignation, believing the whole story is not being told.

On Tuesday, Henare announced he was calling time on his 12-year Parliamentary career, citing exhaustion and a desire to spend more time focusing on his family and future.

“It’s a bit of, I didn’t have enough in the tank. It’s a bit of understanding that I can continue to influence the way people vote outside of being an MP and outside of Parliament,” he said.

Henare also said some opportunities had presented themselves to him.

While it was known Henare would not be contesting the Tāmaki Makaurau seat, his announcement he would not be standing at all came in the middle of a joint press conference by the Labour and Green Party leadership.

He told one media platform of his plans before Labour had the chance to put out its own announcement, but Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who initially refused to answer questions about the resignation, denied the announcement had been bungled.

“New Zealand’s a small place, and rumours swirl around. I don’t comment on rumours. I let people have their space to make their announcements, and that’s what I’ve done here.”

Speaking after the opening of the upgraded Haruru Falls Road around the back of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Jones expressed his surprise at Henare’s retirement.

“I had no idea that Peeni was going to move on. Peeni’s grandfather was our paramount chief of the north, the last commander of the Māori Battalion, a dearly loved figure throughout all the tribes of the motu,” he said.

“I’m not across all the details, but I want to make sure that the story, when it’s fully told, that we focus on what’s happened because he struck me as a guy who had quite a large potential for politics.”

Jones said he was going to go and find out what had happened, and the “kumara vine” would inform him, but he thought Labour and Henare should be more forthcoming.

“That’s up to them to ensure that there’s a very comprehensive account as to what’s happened to this young leader of Te Tai Tokerau, and why he, all of a sudden, is departing from the Labour Party. I mean, whatever we think about Māori leadership, Peeni Henare is blessed with the lineage of leadership throughout the north.”

On Tuesday, Henare said things never went perfectly at Waitangi, with “a hui here and a hui there”, and because he was at a pōwhiri for the Governor-General, he admitted the timing had not worked out as well as he had thought.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will arrive at Waitangi on Wednesday, ahead of meetings with iwi leaders, after opting to stay away in 2025.

While he will not stick around for Friday’s commemorations, Luxon will meet with the Iwi Chairs Forum on Wednesday and take part in Thursday’s pōwhiri.

When announcing the Prime Minister’s intention to return to Waitangi, a spokesperson said Luxon was “looking forward” to the visit, and would be “taking the opportunity to keep engaging with iwi about the response to last week’s weather events and the work the government is doing to grow the economy and help every New Zealander get ahead.”

Despite many politicians having already arrived at Waitangi, they will be formally welcomed onto Te Whare Rūnanga on Thursday morning.

On Tuesday, Labour leader Chris Hipkins joined the Greens on a Treaty Grounds walkabout with Māori Wardens, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters held a bilateral meeting with his German counterpart on the Purerua Peninsula, and associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka visited the flood-affected community of Ngaiotonga.

“They’ve gone through some pretty severe weather, trauma, and severe conditions. It’s damaged a lot of infrastructure, roads, farms, whānau, houses [and] communities, and we’ve taken action,” Potaka said.

The government has sent campervans to parts of Northland as emergency accommodation assistance, which Potaka expected would be needed for a “couple” of months, at most.

The government’s response to the severe weather was something Potaka expected would come up in meetings with the forum, along with the “basics” like the economy, law and order, and education.

However, the chair of the Forum’s Pou Tahua (economic arm), Jamie Tuuta, said the last term had been a challenging one.

Tuuta said iwi leaders had been focused on the government for years, but had now reached a stage where iwi were at the precipice of working together to “actually transform the realities” for Māori.

Pou Tangata chair Rahui Papa said the key message to the government would be what strategies would they employ to bolster Māori aspirations, instead of legislation which “unpicks” te Tiriti o Waitangi.

“We want to hear from them, what is their program of mahi? We also want to say to them, ‘here’s some of our points in a manifesto and you have to live up to this if you’re going to be a government for all.'”

On Tuesday, iwi leaders unanimously gave their backing to a court case by Ngāti Manuhiri, which seeks to challenge amendments to the Marine and Coastal Areas Act (MACA).

Speaking at a rare press conference alongside Labour, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said the opposition was in Waitangi to “reaffirm” a shared message that te Tiriti required “leadership to step up and take the guidance” of communities.

Potaka, who is also Minister for Māori Crown Relations, insisted the issues that iwi chairs raised were “very engaging,” regardless of who was in government.

“A lot of the kōrero is actually engaged and directed by the chairs themselves, and we want to hear what their concerns are, and we can respond to them accordingly,” he said.

“A lot of them have those concerns around emergency management, but also around the Treaty settlement process, making sure we implement Treaty settlements, and we close out those historical settlements that are outstanding.”

Potaka acknowledged there were serious economic and social “deltas” between many Māori communities and the rest of New Zealand. He said the government would be working “very robustly” in a manner befitting te Tiriti o Waitangi, while also ascribing to National’s values of equal opportunity and citizenship.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Associate Education Minister David Seymour says a new charter school will provide more options for families in Wairoa, which is suffering high truancy rates.

Te Whare Kounga will open with a roll of 65 secondary students in term three this year, rising to 165 students from the start of 2027, for Years 7 to 13.

The school, located at a former primary school on Carroll Street, builds on the transition programme Te Papatipu Matihiko, which for the past two years has aimed to help children get back to school with a new enthusiasm for learning.

Te Papatipu Matihiko board member Chris Cormack said the school would still teach all the core subjects, but would use a different learning model based on Māori philosophy.

“They’ll start each day with kind of a swim or something to do with water – and that’s almost symbolic as well. An actual thing of, like, ‘we’re leaving all the stuff that’s happened at home, happened on the way to school, whatever,’ and we’re kind of starting fresh for the day.

“Then working with them to kind of create individual learning plans following the curriculum broadly, but … a more integrated learning approach, and having them move kind of at their pace.

“A big thing in Wairoa’s slash in the river and flooding and those kind of things, so maybe that’s what they’re interested in, so you craft the year’s curriculum around that – so we might study the river, we can do biology and chemistry and then we might use sensors and have a programme that records that into a computer.”

He said it was about building learning around things that got the akonga excited and wanting to come to class.

“Building up their confidence, helping them navigate group situations, manage conflict, de-escalate – those kinds of things, to get them to a place where you can challenge them a bit more. You don’t want to, like, challenge them on their first day because they’re going to shut down.”

Cormack said Te Papatipu Matihiko had found students would return to school after the transitional programme ended, but drop out again, so they had decided instead to build a longer-term solution.

“When they went back to school, they weren’t necessarily succeeding there because it was such a different learning environment than the one they’d kind of got used to and they didn’t have the support,” he said.

“It was a good program, people got very excited, not everyone dropped out – people went on to learning, which was far better than the alternative before. But we realised that we could do more, essentially, with a longer period of time.”

An ERO report shows the nearby Wairoa College had a statutory manager installed in December 2024 to help with low attendance and improve learning outcomes.

Despite that, attendance rates remained well below the target, with less than half of students attending regularly.

Cormack said those kinds of difficulties were what Te Whare Kounga aimed to address.

“You’ve got to teach to kind of the middle when you’re a big school, you can’t necessarily accommodate everyone. And that’s no fault of the state schools or the teachers there, who are wonderful people and trying their best, but when you’ve got big classrooms, there’s only so much you can do.

“It’s just an option for those who currently are kind of falling through the cracks.”

He said state secondary schools were already very different to employment, university, or polytechnics, and it was hoped the more holistic learning approach would better prepare students than a strictly subject-based education.

Seymour said Te Papatipu Matihiko was an established programme with a good track record, “which has earned the trust of some people who, frankly, don’t trust the state or its schools anymore”.

“These are students who, in many cases, have been checked out of state education. We don’t want to get into a blame game about why that is, we just want to get them re-engaged in education.”

Pushing back on questions about whether it would make sense to instead bolster Wairoa College, he said it was receiving the same resources as other state schools, or “I suspect, slightly more”.

“The question is, if putting resources into something isn’t working and you’ve got an alternative, then why shouldn’t the students be able to take their entitlement to funding as a New Zealand citizen to a school that works for them?” Seymour said.

“The thing about education is that you really only get one shot. That’s not to say people can’t sometimes go back, but for the most part, you get one shot and that’s why it’s vital. If these students aren’t engaged and there’s an entity with a track record of engaging them in the community, then maybe we should fund them to get the job done – that’s what charter schools allow.”

He said some people would see charter schools and state schools as competing, but in Christchurch, four state school principals had worked together to sponsor a charter school “because they recognise that there are some students that they are not actively serving”.

Describing the demand as “overwhelming”, Seymour said nine applications for a charter school were rejected for every approval, putting that down to limited funding.

He said he expected new attendance services and his STAR mandatory attendance action plans were initiatives being rolled out this year, “that I believe will make a difference at Wairoa College and indeed every other school that’s faced a challenge around school attendance”.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand