Luxon told those gathered at a farm meeting on Tuesday he wouldn’t work with the Māori party to form a government after the October election. Photo / Kelly Hodel / Stuff
National leader Christopher Luxon says National won’t win the election by working with Te Pāti Māori, and says the Greens’ “more socialist” agenda leaves little room for cooperation.
Luxon told the crowd of about 50 at a dairy farm north of Morrinsville that the current leadership of Te Pāti Māori had changed too much since Sir Pita Sharples and Dame Tariana Turia, who held ministerial roles in Sir John Key’s government.
During a Q&A session at the dairy farm on Tuesday, Luxon was asked: “Are you going to be able to win the election by working with the Māori Party?”
“The short answer is no,” he replied.
“The party that Key did a deal with back in 2008 was a party that believed in what we called localism and devolution... This is a party that now believes in two separate systems and that is something we cannot support.”
A spokesperson for Luxon later said he hadn’t intended to fully rule out working with the Greens or Te Pāti Māori but wanted to make it clear that forming a coalition with either party was “highly unlikely”.
“It is highly unlikely National would work with Te Pāti Māori. National is working hard to maximise its vote in the upcoming election,” they said.
Current polling shows Te Pāti Māori could hold the balance of power if an election were held today.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said she wasn’t putting too much weight on Luxon’s comments, saying it was taxing “keeping up to date with whatever National’s latest leader has to say”.
There would be little love lost, given Te Pāti Māori had already ruled out supporting any government that would involve the ACT Party. A National-led government would almost certainly require ACT’s support.
She said it was disappointing Luxon had characterised Te Pāti Māori as a “two-systems” party.
“We’ve always been open about being pro-Māori, but that does not mean we are anti non-Māori. We’re focused on trying to redress the imbalances that try to hold out people back,” she said.
In the past, the option of working together with the Māori party wasn’t off the table. Photo / Kelly Hodel / Stuff
At the farm, Luxon also said it would be “very difficult” to work with the Greens.
“This party, the Green Party in New Zealand, has changed as well. It is a more socialist party now rather than an environmental party, if we're honest about it,” he said.
“James Shaw and Eugenie Sage, they genuinely care about the environment – but the other eight MPs actually are all interested in a whole bunch of other random stuff. That makes it really difficult.”
Last month, Green Party co-leader James Shaw used his “State of the Planet” speech to further distance himself from National and ACT, saying they would form a “reactionary, race-baiting” coalition.
Luxon said these parties did not adhere to a commitment to subsidiarity, and his view that people should be treated “on the basis of need”.
“We are all equal under the law, is the deal. So that’s difficult [working together],” he said.
While the relationship between Te Pāti Māori and National appeared to reach a new low, Ngarewa-Packer and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed they recently met.
“We had a really good catch-up,” she said.
“As the prime minister said, we’ve worked well in the past together. The consideration wasn’t really about what happens on October 15, it was about how we can – as party of two – respond to legislation and have a working relationship with the government.”
Hipkins said he’d had a constructive hui with the two Māori Party leaders, but said it had been focused on the remainder of the parliamentary term – not on any potential coalition agreement.
-Stuff
