Anyone looking for controversy in Waitangi will always find it. 182 years after signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the agreement between the indigenous people of Aotearoa and the British Crown, politicians from all New Zealand parties met the Maori tribal leaders on Sunday. At a time when political New Zealand is still in a kind of discovery phase after the departure of Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister – which is why every word is weighed heavily, especially when it comes to New Zealand’s history.
The agreement was “a little experiment” in the 19th century, said Christopher Luxon, the leading candidate of the current opposition National Party, which briefly caused an uproar, which is why he immediately added that today the country has become a “success story”. Luxon also refrained from recording his entire speech in te reo Maori sticking to English – just like the man whose performance was most eagerly awaited. Chris Hipkins, Ardern’s successor as Prime Minister, faced his first public political competition in Waitangi, which will see him through to October’s general election.
The country’s two largest polling institutes have confirmed that the Labor Party has jumped by five and 5.8 percentage points, respectively, since Hipkin took office. The 44-year-old reversed Ardern’s month-long downward trend within a few days, in New Zealand they call it the lovely honeymoon bump, the short wave of feelings of optimism that new heads of state unleash. In some people such a wakes up bump Memories: Ardern also took over the helm a few months before the 2017 election and managed a spectacular turnaround that brought her to the post she held until recently.
New Zealand’s inflation rate was last at 7.2 percent
Hipkins is now supposed to do the same in a duel with Luxon’s National Party – and is apparently more pragmatic than his predecessor. The main goal of his government is to get the crisis caused by the increased cost of living under control in the coming months. New Zealand’s inflation rate was most recently 7.2 percent, with food, rent and construction costs soaring to record highs. Among other things, Hipkins wants to curb costs by extending a tank discount of 25 cents per liter until the end of June, but further measures have yet to be announced – so far there has only been one promise: “We will hurry,” said Hipkins, whose priorities are clear are.
His first trip took him to a meeting with business representatives in Auckland, where shortly afterwards he also experienced his first natural disaster in office: the flooding after heavy rain immediately made Hipkins a crisis manager, as such he had made a name for himself in recent years: the pandemic had managed Hipkins full-time, giving the career Wellington-area politician a reputation as a good organizer.
In Waitangi, however, he now had to deal with overriding issues that will not only determine the coming months of the election campaign, but also the future coexistence of the 17 percent Maori in the population with the rest of New Zealand. After 182 years, the agreement is more relevant than ever: Especially in Ardern’s second term of office, numerous steps were taken to give the indigenous people more say. Ardern had received praise for many of her projects – such as the equal representation of ministerial posts and more language support in schools – but by no means for all of them.
The Maori’s demands are controversial among the white population
On the other hand, she received criticism for the Three Waters Agreement, which provides for a restructuring of New Zealand’s water system and would give the Maori tribes much more influence. Three Waters would be a further step in the direction of the co-governance that Maori representatives have long called for – and already practiced in some areas of national administration – the equal division of executive power between the New Zealand government, which represents the British Crown, and the indigenous people, whose rights have been in force since the Waitangi Agreement have not been complied with as promised at the time. Regardless of debates about historical guilt, the demands of the Maori among the white population are controversial, the country is divided: In New Zealand there are currently many advertising signs both for and against the Three Waters Agreement.
Ardern’s approval ratings have also recently suffered from their clear commitment to the agreement, which is why Hipkins was unable to get through to a clear message at the beginning of his term in office: Politically speaking, the issue could decide the election in autumn for the conservative National Party, which is why the prime minister himself in Waitangi “I like the phrase mahi tahi – work together. That’s what it’s all about: working together to advance our common interests,” Hipkins said Friday after meeting tribal leaders.
A lack of clarity about what co-governance would actually mean is leading to the spread of fake news in New Zealand about Maori who want to “take back” their country and to increased resentment – on this, at least, all parties agree. Hipkins blames National and the liberal ACT party, which are vocally questioning the Three Waters Agreement. The opposition, in turn, blames Ardern, Hipkins and the Labor Party for not providing enough information and fueling fears.
There was unspoken agreement in Waitangi above all on one fact: that Hipkin’s first appearance as prime minister alongside his competitors was not only a traditional celebration of the agreement – but also the unofficial start of the election campaign.