Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 5/2/24

Luxon calls for a constructive debate of differences – but his Waitangi audience had jeered his coalition colleagues

Two Māori ministers announced plans to visit Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa this week, two non-Māori ministers announced scholarships to six university students, and the PM delivered a speech at Waitangi where hostility to his government’s Treaty policies was mounting.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Health Minister and Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti are headed for the Pacific this week to reaffirm the importance of New Zealand’s connections to the region.

The Ministers will meet with the Acting Prime Minister in Tonga, and the Prime Ministers of Cook Islands and Samoa; undertake calls on cultural, community and political leaders; and visit New Zealand-supported activities.

They will depart New Zealand tomorrow evening and return on Saturday.

Agriculture Minister Todd McClay and Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard announced six university students have been awarded scholarships worth a total of $30,000, as part of the coalition Government’s efforts to boost on-the-ground support for farmers and growers.

The students are studying agricultural science, or environmental science, degrees.

Forty-three applications were received for the On Farm Support Science Scholarships.

And so to Waitangi …

Christopher Luxon was given a platform to renew the coalition government’s commitment

“… to helping all New Zealanders, Māori and non-Māori, get ahead, and to giving all our children and grandchildren hope for a prosperous and secure future here in this great country.

“That goal, and many others, are entirely in our grasp. We can realise them together. “

Luxon was responding to a prompt from Māori leaders to answer two questions:

1) Where do we want to be as a nation by 2040? And

2) What do we need to focus on in the next three years to get there?

He responded:

We must aspire to go forward not as two sides, but together as New Zealanders because there is more that unites us than divides us.

However, unity doesn’t mean all of us being or thinking exactly the same. We can value our differences, debate them constructively while respecting each other, and still find a pathway to a better future together.

Debate our differences constructively while respecting each other?

Good luck with that.

The Waitangi crowd’s booing and jeering while Winston Peters spoke and its heckling of ACT leader David Seymour suggested listening was not on their agenda.

Luxon proceeded to describe New Zealand as the best country on earth.

We have unlimited potential, and everything we need to be successful – the best people, a country well positioned in the middle of the Asia Pacific region, and a liberal democracy with well-established social institutions.

We are a multi-cultural nation built on strong bi-cultural foundations, with an acute sense of fairness and a willingness to lend a hand to those who need it.

There are simply no excuses for why we can’t do exceptionally well and be one of the world’s leading, advanced small countries.

Then he expanded on his vision:

By 2040 we will have built a bigger, more productive, smarter, modern 21st century economy that will generate the wealth required to pay for all the things that we need and want to improve the lives of our people.

He invited his audience to imagine a New Zealand

• Where a world class education is setting all of our kids up to take on those higher paying jobs and to do well for themselves.
• That embraces technology and innovation to reduce our isolation and so we can sell more valuable exports and earn bigger incomes.
• With modern and reliable infrastructure to make all our lives easier and our communities more resilient and prosperous.
• That encourages businesses with less red tape so iwi and others with good ideas don’t have such a struggle to realise them, and can grow and offer more job opportunities and higher wages.
• That provides better access to quality healthcare and actually delivers improved health outcomes for everyone, and where parents of Māori children do not wonder if their tamariki will live 6-7 years less than other children.
• Where every Kiwi has a safe, warm, dry home.
• That always helps Kiwis in genuine need with a social safety net, but also has less people dependent on welfare and needing support from their fellow citizens because work pays.
• With less crime and victims of crime where people feel safe in their own homes, businesses or communities, because at the heart of our society sits the notion that we have both rights and responsibilities to each other and to our country, and people are leading more productive and useful lives.
• Where Te Aō Māori is flourishing, where the enduring relationship between the Crown and Iwi improves services and outcomes for tangata whenua, where Treaty settlements have all been completed, and some of New Zealand’s most successful enterprises nationally and internationally are iwi businesses who are using their profits to invest in their people, their rohe, and more business growth.
• Where our multi-cultural society is a source of pride for all of us.
• With abundant renewable energy that is using science and technology to solve our environmental challenges and to preserve our biodiversity.

Then he declared:

Well, I don’t just imagine these things. I am leading a government that is determined to achieve this 2040 vision. I want to see us get our mojo back – a much more confident, positive and ambitious New Zealand. But we will only do it with everyone stepping up and pitching in together.

As to the next three years, Luxon said his Government will be relentlessly focused on improving the economy because it underscores the standard of living of every single one of us, every family and hapū, and every community and iwi in this country.

The struggle with the cost of living is one of the financial legacies of the previous government that spent too much, borrowed too much, and left nothing to show for it except rising debt, high inflation, high interest rates, a shrinking economy, and a lot of extra jobs in Wellington.

First, his team must get the Government’s books back in order. Luxon spoke of the need to improve services, pay off the debt and return some money as tax relief.

Second, the government will focus on restoring law and order after violent crime, retail crime, and youth offending spiralled out of control under the previous government.

Third, the aim is to deliver better public services – with a particular focus on health and education.

Luxon reiterated his concerns about the high truancy rate in schools.

His government will do its part by backing the Kaupapa Māori education system, reintroducing partnership schools, investing in structured literacy, teaching the basics well, and setting clear targets focussed on attendance and achievement so that our kids can have the futures they all deserve.

Luxon concluded with a message to iwi:

I want Te Aō Māori to thrive. When Māori do well, we all know it, New Zealand does well.

To face up to the country’s complex economic, social and environmental challenges, to deliver better outcomes for everybody, and to ultimately realise our 2040 vision, Luxon said,

… we must work together – and at tremendous speed.

Then he identified matters on which iwi and the government should be in accord:

We, like you, believe in localism and devolution, not centralisation and control. No one understands your iwi like your iwi does. So, where iwi and community providers are best at delivering results for your whānau – for example, in childhood immunisations, which was a big programme we funded late last year – we’ll power them up. With that comes accountability for spending public money and for delivering improved results.

So, we will keep talking – sometimes boisterously, always sincerely, I hope respectfully and, I believe, ultimately productively. And alongside the kōrero, in te reo Māori and in English, we need action. Because it’s action that will create tangible improvements in our people’s daily lives.

Latest from the Beehive

5 FEBRUARY 2024

Ministers reaffirm Pacific connections this week

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Health Minister and Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti are reaffirming the importance of New Zealand’s connections to the Pacific by visiting Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa this week.

Speech

Rt Hon Christopher Luxon – Waitangi speech

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, rau rangatira ma. Tēnā koutou katoa.

He tino mihi ki te mana whenua o tēnei rohe.

5 FEBRUARY 2024

Government awards primary sector scholarships to students

Six university students studying agriculture and science have been awarded scholarships as part of the coalition Government’s efforts to boost on-the-ground support for farmers and growers.

Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton