Source: Radio New Zealand
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says the government is anti-Treaty and therefore anti-Māori, but the Prime Minister argues iwi leaders have worked to find “common ground”.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon rejects Hipkins’ claims, calling the Iwi Chairs Forum on Wednesday a positive engagement and the best forum he has participated in.
He said the six different sub-regions had their say, and put questions to him and Finance Minister Nicola Willis.
Ngāti Wai Chair Aperahama Edwards said the meeting with the government was “beneficial”, but there was still a lot of pain among Māori compared to the last time Luxon was present in 2024.
“Our people are hurting, and we’re mindful of that, but there’s also a calm here as well, and an optimism at the thought of what sort of change might be coming,” Edwards said.
Luxon was in Waitangi with a contingent of government ministers ahead of the political pōwhiri taking place on Thursday, which he will attend.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. RNZ
Māori-Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka said the Iwi Chairs meeting was “robust” and “interrogative”, and an “exchange”.
“There needs to be an exchange of ideas, an exchange of investigative queries, but also a sense of optimism and progress, and that’s what we’ve seen today.”
Luxon said the meeting was not combative or contentious, but “direct”.
“We’re direct too,” he said.
He said they discussed the work to lift outcomes for Māori in the context of health, law and order, the economy, infrastructure development and investment and education.
“And lo and behold, iwi want to do exactly the same thing to advance their people as well. So there’s really good alignment.”
Earlier, Hipkins had called the government “anti-Treaty”, referring to the Treaty Principles Bill.
Asked for more examples Hipkins said the pledge to remove Treaty references from some legislation, the removal of Te Reo Māori from school and the deprioritising of the Māori language on street signs and government departments.
“They’re having passports redesigned just so that they can reorder the words. All of these things are just a big step backwards for New Zealand.”
When asked if Labour would reverse changes to the Marine and Coastal Area Act and the removal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act, which have been criticised by Māori, Hipkins said the party had not made any final decisions.
He said he wanted to move the country forward in a way that “brings people with us”.
“Where any government moves too quickly and doesn’t bring people with them, you run the risk of the pendulum swinging back further in the other direction, on the next political cycle.
“And I don’t want to see that continue, so we will be focused on sustainable change that brings people along.”
Hipkins said his discussions with the Forum had been “constructive” but acknowledged the iwi leaders would work with whoever the government was.
When asked whether the government was “anti-Māori” Luxon accepted “ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill was incredibly challenging”.
But he had spoken openly to iwi leaders through that period and afterward, and he pointed to the meeting on Wednesday, saying “what we’ve got to find is the common ground”.
“Let’s focus on the common ground, the 70 percent that we can agree on, that we can actually move and advance forward … let’s do that.”
Willis said the most practical way the Crown upholds the Treaty of Waitangi was through progressing Treaty Settlements, which she said the government had made “good progress on”.
Asked whether Māori could have confidence Luxon would not agree to the likes of the Treaty Principles Bill again, Luxon said that was “absolutely ruled out”.
He said despite tensions through challenges like the Treaty Principles Bill, the government had continued the conversation with iwi leaders at the same time.
“The conversation that we had today is no different from the nature of the conversations that I’ve been having over the last two years.”
Iwi leader Tukoroirangi Morgan echoed that sentiment, calling the meeting “productive” and saying iwi leaders were in a position where “we need to get stuff done”.
Despite being election year, work needed to continue, he said.
“And the government needs to be conscious that actually working in a much more strategic way to complete action plans, business plans, all of the stuff that we’ve been talking to them for a long, long time should get done.”
Morgan said Luxon was “very committed” to the Treaty relationship.
“We have to try and find creative ways of working with the government in the face of tough economic times, there are still opportunities, and we need to take those opportunities.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/02/04/prime-minister-rejects-opposition-claim-that-government-is-anti-treaty/