Bruce Moon: “The whole truth and nothing but the truth” would be nice for a change would it not?

A heading in “The Post” for 15 December 2023 proclaims “The promise we should be keeping around the Treaty”.

It is followed by a picture of the recently defaced document in Te Papa being studied by two police officers and the caption “Protest group Te Waka Hourua deface a Te Papa exhibit displaying the English text of the Treaty of Waitangi.”

Marcus Roberts: Yes/No: The Right Way to Go?

If the first victim of war is truth, the first victims of coalition negotiations are controversial policies. Act’s policy to hold a referendum on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi was undoubtedly one of the most contentious of the election.

Act had promised to pass legislation defining the principles based on the Māori version of Te Tiriti and then to hold a binding referendum on whether that legislation should take effect. This same process got the End of Life Choice Act 2019 voted in during 2020.

JC: Willie Needs His Gob Smacked

Willie, Willie, Willie… when will you learn?

Willie Jackson, once again, has made the mistake of opening his mouth. Willie is something of an arsonist in the sense that his comments are designed to be inflammatory and have an incendiary feel about them. He aims to light a fire under the topic he is speaking on.

Willie’s latest effort in this regard concerns the Treaty of Waitangi. In Willie’s world, this document is not up for discussion. He is incensed that a little so-called Maori upstart by the name of David Seymour wants a referendum to let the people determine the meaning of the principles of the Treaty so that they apply to modern times. This, of course, is not democracy as Willie understands it. He’s already enlightened us to the fact that ‘democracy has changed’. Democracy, in Willie’s view, appears to be ‘the world according to Willie’.

Wendy Geus: ACT Wants to Clarify, Not Rewrite

One headline says, “New era of Treaty politics looms”. Luxon vehemently opposed to referendum: it would be too divisive, goes the writer’s fearful narrative.

This hot-potato issue has apparently been holding up negotiations for the new government. It is this and other emotive social issues, that NZ First campaigned on to get their foot in the door this election. Issues that National was too afraid to discuss in depth and, let’s be honest, Christopher Luxon found too distasteful to discuss. It might frighten the horses (aka the media, Maori elite, academia and public servants).

Chris Trotter: Time To Choose.

To be political in the fourth quarter of 2023 is not easy. Yes, New Zealand has just passed through a general election, but the outcome of that contest was signalled well in advance by the polls. That the government lost came as no surprise, even if the vehemence of the electorate’s judgement came as a shock to many of the defeated party’s supporters. But, it wasn’t Labour’s thrashing, and the victory of the Right, that made politics so hard. The explanation for the souring of political discourse here, and around the world, may be traced to Southern Israel, Hamas’s hideous rampage of 7 October, and the furious reaction of the Israeli state.