Luxon manages to be the cowardly lion, the Tin man and the brainless scarecrow all in one (Seymour is Oz and Winston the Wicked Witch of the West)

David Seymour says he doesn’t ‘believe’ comment from Christopher Luxon on Treaty Principles Bill

ACT leader David Seymour is refusing to back down on his controversial Treaty Principles Bill, saying he believes the Prime Minister’s opinion can be changed.

Seymour believes Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was “nervous” after Waitangi and could still back his Treaty Principles Bill despite ruling out doing so.

But questions remain about why the Bill is even getting to the Select Committee stage if National won’t support it beyond its first reading.

We ain’t in Te Puke no more Toto.

David bitch slapping the Prime Minister in public over this fucking race war inducing Treaty Principles Bill is just glorious isn’t it?

Has there ever been a weaker National Party Prime Minister in living memory?

Look, Winston and David are the maters, Luxon is a frightened virgin at an orgy.

TDB told you Seymour and Winston would play Luxon, look at Thomas Coughlan’s laser like appraisal of how cleverly Seymour has checkmated Luxon…

Treaty of Waitangi: Christopher Luxon cannot stop voters having their say on Act’s bill

Luxon and many observers may think that the hardening of his language against the bill this week – he’s now unequivocal: National won’t be backing the bill past select committee – might be enough to put the issue to rest.

He couldn’t be more wrong.

New Zealanders will vote on the bill – that was decided in coalition talks. The only power Luxon has now is to determine the manner in which they vote. This could be via an actual referendum, as Act wants; via a citizens-initiated referendum, which seems highly unlikely or by Act turning the 2026 election into a de facto referendum on its bill.

…or dump the referendum altogether and vote as a conscience vote.

This is what we have been arguing here for some time, Luxon is so weak he is getting trapped by the anti Māori extremism and free market extremism from ACT and NZ First.

Luxon manages to be the cowardly lion, the Tin man and the brainless scarecrow all in one (Seymour is Oz, Winston the Wicked Witch of the West and Shane the winged monkey).

Luxon doesn’t have the skill set or the emotional intelligence to deal with Political Rivals, his CEO tool kit means nothing here.

What is equally damaging for National is that they have contracted out their policy to corporate lobbyists so they don’t have policy so much as lobby talking points. These talking points are desperately being fleshed out now, and we see that attacking worker rights, renter rights and gutting public transport, removing $555million from the poorest families, gutting Somkefree amendments alongside opening up conservation land to Trans National Mining Interests while giving Shane Jones fast track powers is all they have.

Smash everything Labour built and pitifully adopt nakedly partisan donor recommendations and call that a solution.

Between the culture war revenge fantasies and nakedly opportunistic policy wins for friendly industries you have to wonder what voters were thinking when they vomited up this spite festival of a Government with a Prime Minister too weak to stop the worst angels of the Rights nature from tearing us apart.

I think post covid voters were so angry at Labour and da Māoris for not dealing meaningfully with their pain and anxiety that the electorate in blind rage turned to extremes everywhere and because the Māori Party triggered the overhang, National and ACT required Winston.

The looming economic crunch and geopolitical destabilisation alongside an inflation driven cost of living crisis will only exacerbate that polarisation, not stave it off.

The Greens and Māori Party are offering counter narratives. Nobody is listening to Labour.

Judith Collins would totally be the Wicked Witch of the East.

 

 

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.

If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.