Graham Adams: RNZ’s te reo policy dovetails with He Puapua

Jacinda Ardern always insisted He Puapua was not official government policy although critics could be forgiven for thinking it was — whether it was the blind eye turned to illegal iwi roadblocks in Northland during Covid or the co-governance provisions under Three Waters.

Similarly, RNZ’s management would undoubtedly deny that its te reo policy closely echoes the He Puapua playbook despite striking similarities.

Graham Adams: India’s view of ‘indigenous’ rattles Māori advisers

A month before 2023’s election, Winston Peters ignited a brush fire in the media after he told a campaign meeting in Nelson that Māori were not indigenous to New Zealand.

His reasoning was simple: “We come from Hawai-iki. Where's our Hawai-iki? We think it is in the Cook Islands. We think it’s in Rarotonga... but we’re not from here.”

He noted that his tribe Ngāti Wai “came to Aotearoa about 900 years ago or longer”.

Graham Adams: Five years on, the tide turns against ideological censors

It is five years this month since a letter signed by seven Auckland University professors was published in the Listener under the title “In Defence of Science”. They argued that although mātauranga Māori (traditional knowledge) is “critical for the preservation of culture and perpetuation of local practices, and plays key roles in management and policy… it falls far short of what we can define as science itself.”

The letter sparked a firestorm. Auckland University’s Vice-chancellor, Dawn Freshwater, wrote that questioning “whether mātauranga Māori can be called science has caused considerable hurt and dismay among our staff, students and alumni”. She emphasised the letter did not represent the university’s views.

Graham Adams: Is UNDRIP really an easy win for Winston?

With National widely regarded as falling somewhere between half-hearted and hopeless on rolling back co-governance, its coalition partners are in fierce competition for voters who object to Maorification and reject any interpretation of the Treaty that implies a partnership between the Crown and iwi.

Graham Adams: Why was UNDRIP ‘affirmed’ in the India FTA?

Exactly how a clause “affirming” the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples found its way into the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement is still unclear but the question is not going to go away any time soon.

In fact, it is turning into a whodunnit as political sleuths try to figure out when the clause was introduced, who put it there, and who wanted it included. They have been forced to try to join the dots and speculate due to the government’s inability — or unwillingness — to offer a convincing explanation.

Graham Adams: Hipkins drags out Phoney War with Coalition

After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939 there was an eight-month period in which there were a few brief skirmishes but very little significant fighting on land. The standoff in Western Europe was dubbed the “Phoney War”, the “Bore War”, and the “sitzkrieg” (“the sitting war” — in contrast to the blitzkrieg inflicted on Poland).

Military action was mainly carried out at sea until Hitler’s lightning invasion of Norway in April 1940 sparked serious hostilities.

Graham Adams: Hikoi threat over Treaty clauses review

Fighting talk from a TVNZ journalist.

The government’s review of Treaty clauses in legislation has mightily displeased one of the resident Māori activists at 1News. A column by Te Aniwa Hurihanganui that accompanied her televised news segment last week is titled “Govt risks another colossal hikoi if it weakens Treaty obligations”.

Graham Adams: Media talks up Winston Peters’ rise

The path to election glory has traps.

NZ First’s prospects at the election after a run of good polling are being talked up by increasingly enthusiastic commentators. But if a week is a long time in politics, more than six months is an eternity. And there are traps aplenty for the party to navigate before November 7.

Listening to the media, however, you might think the continuing rise of Winston Peters and NZ First is unstoppable.

Graham Adams: The Rosy Resurrection of Helen Clark

Just don’t mention the foreshore and seabed.

Helen Clark’s gift of $86.8 million to the arts sector in May 2000 turned out to be a canny investment. The opera aficionado’s benevolence early in her first term as Prime Minister seems to have guaranteed her the undying devotion of the luvvies who dominate the world of theatre, music and film.

They will forgive her anything — except perhaps 2004’s Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Graham Adams: Media Campaign Against Luxon Risks Backfiring

Barristers often warn their juniors of the dangers of excessively badgering or humiliating a witness in court. There is always the risk that the jury’s sympathy will shift sharply towards the witness if they are suddenly seen as a victim of bullying.  

The media may be making a similar error in their attacks on Christopher Luxon, which many voters will see as going well beyond reasonable political criticism. In fact, some media outlets are making themselves look recklessly partisan in what appears to be an attempt to unseat the Prime Minister and reduce the chances of a National-led government returning to power in November.

Graham Adams: Making English Official Is A Sly Winner

Winston Peters snookers the naysayers

The reaction to NZ First’s English Language Bill has ranged from intense vitriol to support with reservations but it passed its first reading in Parliament this week without any votes cast against it. It now proceeds to the Justice select committee for scrutiny before its second reading.

The Justice minister, Paul Goldsmith, has endorsed it while pointing out that making English an official language wouldn’t have been a “top priority” if it hadn’t been in his party’s coalition agreement with NZ First. He meant, of course, that National regards the bill as a waste of time.

Graham Adams: Luxon Finds Merit In Treaty Principles After All

Ever since David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill was defeated in Parliament last April he has promised his campaign for “equal rights for all citizens” would be back on the political agenda for this year’s election.

He is certainly doggedly keeping the memory of the bill alive. He mentioned it in his State of the Nation speech on February 15; in his address at Waitangi on February 5; and on the same day in a column in Wellington’s The Post, in which he restated the proposed articles with a reminder that each had received significantly more support than opposition in polls at the time.

Graham Adams: Councillor Refuses To Kowtow To Marae Protocol

Hastings politician won’t compromise his values.

At first glance, you wouldn’t guess that Mark Carney’s much-lauded speech to the World Economic Forum last month in Davos had any relevance to a councillor in New Zealand refusing to attend an official meeting at a marae.

However, the theme of the Canadian Prime Minister’s speech was the importance of being open and honest about widely accepted beliefs we all know to be at least “partially false”. He urged middle-nations to call out the cosy view of the “rules-based international order” which is routinely abused by the powerful.

Graham Adams: Hipkins Revives Failed 2023 Election Tactics

When Chris Hipkins succeeded Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister in January 2023, he adopted what was essentially a “smaller target” strategy.

He announced a policy bonfire to sideline some of the Labour government’s most contentious proposals — including the RNZ-TVNZ merger, hate-speech laws and the biofuels mandate. Instead, he claimed he would concentrate on “bread-and-butter” issues.

Graham Adams - Election 2026: Swarbrick’s plan for Green supremacy falters

When Chlöe Swarbrick became the Greens’ co-leader in March 2024, she announced that she wanted the party to go “mainstream”.

Her professed aim was to supplant the Labour Party to ultimately form “the nation’s first Green-led government”, all without compromising the movement’s core values.

Graham Adams: Maori nationalism takes a hammering in 2025

At the end of 2024, Māori nationalists were riding high in their quest to assert a special place in the nation’s laws and policy.

In November, the video of Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clark leading a haka in Parliament and ripping up a copy of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill racked up hundreds of millions of views worldwide.

Graham Adams: Stanford Redeems Herself With Reverse Ferret

Furore over Treaty flip-flop boosts her credentials.

A “reverse ferret” refers to someone suddenly taking a dramatically different position on a particular issue — as Erica Stanford did last week with her screeching u-turn over removing the most prominent of the Treaty clauses in the Education and Training Act (2020).

Graham Adams: Maorification Is National’s Achilles heel

Its opposition to Treatyism is bafflingly haphazard.

At times it’s impossible not to wonder whether some of National’s ministers — and the Prime Minister — have early-onset Alzheimer’s. It is as if they have found themselves in government but can’t remember exactly how they got there and why they won.

Graham Adams: Tikanga inserted into cutting-edge gene bill

In August 2024, the then-Minister of Science, Innovation, and Technology, Judith Collins, announced legislation to end New Zealand’s nearly 30-year ban on gene technology outside the lab. She described the move as “a major milestone in modernising gene technology laws.”

In her Beehive media release, she said, “The changes we’re announcing today will allow researchers and companies to further develop and commercialise their innovative products. Importantly, it will help New Zealanders to better access treatments such as CAR T-cell therapy, which has been clinically proven to effectively treat some cancers. It can also help our farmers and growers mitigate emissions and increase productivity, all of which benefits our economy.”

Graham Adams: Compulsory Treaty courses tip of the iceberg

Last week, David Seymour enthusiastically welcomed the recommendation by Auckland University’s Senate to make the compulsory first-year courses on the Treaty and te ao Māori voluntary after Act had publicly campaigned on the issue.

He described the Senate’s “two to one” vote in favour of voluntary enrolment as a “massive victory for people… to make up their own mind”.