Live updates from Waitangi: Day of political tension ends

Today, on the eve of Waitangi Day, the Treaty Grounds – and Te Whare Rūnanga especially – are expected to be a hotbed of political debate. And equally, pockets of fried bread stuffed with creamed pāua and Mr Whippy ice creams.

At 11am, parliamentarians will be welcomed with a pōwhiri at Te Whare Rūnanga on the Upper Treaty Grounds. It’s traditionally a chance for politicians to have their say and the hau kāinga to respond. Last year, things got heated.

Everyone’s in for a long day under the sun here with temperatures expected to hit 26C, but few more so than Tama Potaka. The minister for Māori development is one of a handful of National ministers here today, alongside Paul Goldsmith and Shane Reti. Asked how he feels showing up as a part of the government progressing the Treaty principles bill, Potaka said they’ve come here with “humility” and “absolute determination to continue to work with, listen to, and engage with the people of Ngāpuhi, but actually all Māori and all New Zealanders.

“We’ve heard, pretty clearly, what the views of many Māori are,” Potaka said.

Yesterday, Labour leader Chris Hipkins had a go at paddling a waka. The Greens were everywhere, doing everything, all at once. And Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer announced ambitions to establish a te Tiriti commissioner, who would have the powers to audit the government on its commitment to honour the Treaty, to a pack of reporters outside Te Rau Aroha.

“It’s an interesting idea,” Potaka told media this morning. The TPM co-leaders described a commissioner with “teeth”, though admitted they still had to flesh out the details on how the commission would operate, what it would look like and how it would overrule the powers of parliament. Today, Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer won’t be on the Treaty Grounds – instead, they’ll be attending the tangi for koōanga reo movement leader Dame Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi, who died on Sunday.

This year’s Waitangi is expected to be the biggest on record, with numbers expected to exceed 2024’s 80,000 people in attendance. The bridge leading onto Waitangi was closed earlier than usual, and there’s been a noticeably large police presence on the grounds for the last few days.

The Toitū te Tiriti group has carried out a short “activation” at the Upper Treaty Grounds, having turned their backs on the arriving politicians. They’re now heading downhill to the Lower Treaty Grounds to have their own kōrero at the Forum Tent.

Organiser Eru Kapa-Kingi addressed Act leader David Seymour, saying, “I’m looking at you David Seymour … you should be so lucky to be on this marae.

“I hope one day, you find it in yourself to love being Māori. Your people would want you to be here, if you would be so willing.”

Parliamentarians have been welcomed onto the Upper Treaty Grounds with a pōwhiri. In the absence of the prime minister, speaker Gerry Brownlee accepted the wero and the manuhiri have now taken their seats outside Te Whare Rūnanga, with kōrero now under way.

David Seymour accepted the taki laid down by the kaiwero, and was spat at while doing so.

Meanwhile, at the Lower Treaty Grounds, a political forum led by the Toitū te Tiriti group is running at the same time as the pōwhiri for the parliamentarians at Te Whare Rūnanga. Called Te Whare Kōrero o te Motu, it includes Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris and former MP and activist Hone Harawira.

Te Aupōuri chief executive Tipene Kapa-Kingi welcomed the crowd, followed by his brother Toitū Te Tiriti spokesperson Eru Kapa-Kingi.

Act leader David Seymour’s speech was disrupted by protesters who were led on to the grounds by Hone Harawira. They turned their back on Seymour as he spoke and his microphone was twice taken, once by Aperahama Edwards, but he continued his speech.

“Here’s some problems you can’t turn your back on,” said Seymour, speaking of Māori school attendance rates and Māori as victims of crime.

Seymour, who began his speech in te reo Māori, finished by saying “Ngā mihi and I look forward to working with you. You know you want to and you know that ultimately we all have to. Thank you very much.”

Māori development minister Tama Potaka spoke first, preceding Seymour, and was also faced with turned backs from some in attendance.

Speaking in te reo Māori, he said he had been labelled kūpapa, to laughter from the crowd. “People have called me a kūpapa but as a servant to my people, that is what I will always do in parliament.”

Potaka said there will be ups and downs but tino rangatiratanga will not die, and ended his korero by saying, “This will be a good year for Ngāpuhi, I will continue serving our people to the best of my ability in parliament.”

As the opposition representatives (the Greens’ Teanau Tuiono and Labour leader Chris Hipkins) spoke, the protesters sat down, but they’ve now risen to their feet as NZ First minister Shane Jones begins his kōrero.

Tuiono spoke following Seymour, beginning with a dig at the Act leader: “The mic is so low I might need a shovel to get lower”.

Hipkins, meanwhile, made some subtle quips directed at Luxon’s non-attendance. “Leadership needs to come from the top and that’s why I’m here and will be here every year that I’m in politics,” said, adding, “This pigeon has no intention of flying in doing its business and flying out again.”

Jones, meanwhile, has railed against the Treaty principles bill, reiterating that it will not pass. “Ngāpuhi, pave the way and listen to what I have to say … we will not support this bill, stop worrying about a bill that will not succeed.”

As he spoke of the Treaty, he was heckled by protesters who told him to sit down.

NZ First co-leader Winston Peters followed Jones, speaking briefly and directing his final line at the protesters who turned their backs on Potaka and Seymour earlier, as well as Peters and Jones.

“Those of you that turn your back, there will come a time when you want to talk to us more than we want to talk to you. Kia ora tatou,” said Peters.

Ngāpuhi kaumatua Hone Sadler is the final speaker. Speaking in te reo Māori, he has criticised the government.

“There are three heads of the monster that are leading the entire country – where are they?” said Sadler. “My friend, Tama, I thank you for your acknowledgements … I thank you, because I can recall what the government has done, that you are leading the way, you are leading the ways in terms of the hurt, the pain,” he added, addressing minister Tama Potaka.

“You have broken the guarantees and promises to support Maori people, and we are the ones who have been hurt severely.”

David Seymour hosted a brief media stand up following the pōwhiri. He walked across the upper Treaty Grounds flanked by media, to shouts of “where’s your mate Tim?” [in reference to the recent lifting of name suppression which revealed former Act Party president Tim Jago as the “political figure” found guilty of abusing teenaged boys in the 90s], “go home” and “you’re the most hated politician! You’re the most hated!”.

Hone Harawira is speaking at the Waitangi Forum Tent on the Lower Treaty Grounds. After he said “this is the worst fucking government we’ve ever had”, he called on people to unite.

Harawira said his whānaunga Shane Jones is “opening up everyone’s backyards for mining”. This garnered a shouted response from former MP Catherine Delahunty in the crowd – “That’s right, fuck off”. Laughs and applause followed.

Speaking to media, newly returned Greens co-leader Marama Davidson was asked if she supported Seymour’s microphone being taken away. “I support the people sending a clear sign that they do not tolerate the hateful rhetoric,” she replied.

Asked if she agreed that Tama Potaka was kūpapa, she said “yes, because where is Tama’s support for the mana motuhake of ngā hapū Aotearoa? That is really what every political party should be bringing here today. Anything less than that is not what the people are asking for, it’s not what Tiriti is about.”

Labour leader Chris Hipkins, meanwhile, said that today’s were an understandable direct response to a deliberately inflammatory government. “I think those who engaged constructively got a fair hearing,” he said. “Protest is legitimate, and there was a lot of protest, and I can understand where the anger around that comes from.”

On Christopher Luxon’s absence. Hipkins said, “I think as PM, the country is looking for leadership, the country is looking for someone to bring us together – that goes with the job. I think he’s not doing his job.”

Act leader David Seymour has spoken to media at Waitangi following a frosty reception to his speech during the pōwhiri for parliamentarians earlier.

Echoing his comments about Te Pāti Māori’s haka in parliament when the Treaty principles bill was introduced in November last year, Seymour said it wasn’t right to try to intimidate people out of making up their own mind about ideas, and “threaten them with war dances”, labelling such moves “death to democracy”.

“If you have to get in someone’s face to say something, maybe you don’t have a very good argument to begin with.”

He said his party was doing more to solve some of the problems faced by Māori than some of those who turned their backs on politicians today.

Earlier, Treaty of Waitangi negotiations minister Paul Goldsmith said Seymour’s microphone being taken away was “disappointing”. “Ultimately we came to listen and have an exchange of views, but ultimately it’s up to the host how to organise that. But you know, I found it disappointing.

“We have a coalition agreement,” Goldsmith continued. “We have a bill that’s being debated and words to express that. I think it’s important we all should be able to express those views and to be heard and listened to and to be challenged.”

NZ First minister Shane Jones, meanwhile, said an “unhelpful virus” had crept into Māori welcome ceremonies. “They’re starting to bark and they’re starting to yell in the wero. That is never ever the culture.” Speaking of Waitangi commemorations in particular, he said he would discuss with his caucus the need to ensure that “future pōhiri don’t turn into a circus”.

The politicians have all left the upper treaty grounds for today. Te Whare Rūnanga and the surrounding areas are being prepared for official commemorations tomorrow, which begin with a dawn service at 5am. Panel discussions are also wrapping up at the forum tent near the waka house, as well as at Te Tii Marae. We will be back with more coverage āpōpō.