Joel Maxwell is a senior writer with Pou Tiaki at Stuff.
HUATAU: Kāore e kore, e pai ana te noho ki a Pāremata - otirā i mua o te aroaro o te tokomaha - ki a Winston Peters, Pirimia Tuarua.
OPINION: There’s no doubt that Deputy PM Winston Peters loves his time in Parliament, indeed his time in front of the gaze of the masses.
I te wiki kua pahure ake, ki te pā o Rātana, kua ngau ia ki tērā āporo reka. He noke, pea, ki roto.
Appearing at Rātana Pā last week, Peters took a bite of that particular sweet apple. He might have found a worm.
Kua whakahāwea mai te marea i ētahi kaikōrero ki te taumata o tēnei hui Rātana: Koinei pea te wā tuatahi i pērā ai i te hītori katoa o te hui nā.
Potentially for the first time ever during the speeches at the Rātana hui, the audience jeered at some of the speakers.
Ki tāku, e hanga whakahīhī ana a Peters rāua ko Shane Jones - tāna tuarua - i tā rāua kanikani Watusi i runga i ngā kare-ā-roto, whakaaro, hiahia o te maha o ngā tāngata e tautoko ana i te Tiriti; i te reo Māori me ōna tikanga ‘noki.
To me it looks like Peters and Shane Jones, his deputy, appear almost proud of shimmying the Watusi on the feelings, ideas and desires of people supporting Te Tiriti - and the Māori language and its customs.
Anei te urupare a Peters, i a ia i tū ai ki te taumata, i te amuamu o ngā kaimātakitaki (Here’s Peters’ response, from the microphone, to the grumbling audience):
“If you want to change, if you want to be a winner, be like the rugby team last year, where they organised themselves, realised their deficiencies, didn’t shout out like you are, honey child.”
Kua kīa mai e ia a “honey child”?
Did he just say “honey child”?
Tēnā, e te koroua, kaua e tū hei whanokē.
Please, just don’t be weird.
I te whakaarohia e au, ko tēnā kapa whutupōro “i tērā tau”, ko te kapa Ōpango, pea?
I was thinking that the rugby team from “last year” was the All Blacks?
He kapa miharo rawa - engāri, i te mutunga o te rā, kua hingahia e rātou ki te whakataetae nui rawa o te ao. Tērā pea kua warewaretia e Peters ki tēnā. Engari, ngā mihi mō te whakamaumahara mai o te hinga nā i a mātou.
They’re a brilliant team, but at the end of the day they lost at the World Cup. Maybe Peters just forgot? But thanks for reminding the rest of us.
Heoi anō, kua karo a David Seymour, kaiārahi a te Rōpū ACT, i te kohete o te tini ki tēnei hui “ōkawa” tuatahi (hāunga anō o te hui-ā-motu ki a Ngāruawāhia i te wiki ki mua) i roto i te tau tōrangapū hou. Kua noho haumaru kē ia ki tōna ake “pā kotahitanga”. E whakapae ana au - he ana i raro i a Lambton Quay.
ACT leader David Seymour had dodged the jeers of the crowd at the first “official” political event (aside from the hui held the previous week at Ngāruawāhia) of the political year. He instead stayed safe in his own “fortress of solitude”. I’m guessing a bunker under Lambton Quay.
Ahakoa o tēnā, me puta mai ia a tōna wā, hei tū ki a Waitangi. Koia rā te tino wero. Koia rā te mura o te kāpura.
Korekore he ana ki a Waitangi. Tē taea te karo.
But no matter what, he’s going to have to emerge at Waitangi. That’s going to be the challenge. There he’ll face the heat of battle.
And there’s no bunkers, and no dodging it.
E whakatere ana ia i te pire hou kia whai he pōtitake ā-marea mō ngā kaupapa o Te Tiriti.
He’s steering the new bill seeking a referendum on the Treaty principles.
Nāna te pire i kōkirihia; anā tōna kai.
He’s championed the cause; now he faces the consequences.
Ina karekau he pōti hei tautoko i te pire i tōna pānuitia tuarua (hanga tohutia mai e te Pirimia Christopher Luxon ki tēnā ahuatanga), hei aha tēnei mahi katoa? He moumou wā - he whare tapere noa iho.
But if there are no votes to support the bill at its second reading (as vaguely signalled by PM Christopher Luxon), what is the point of all this work? It’s a waste of time - pure theatre only.
Heoi anō, ka kite tātou ki Waitangi - me ōna kaimātakitaki hīkaka - mehemea e pai tonu ana te whiti mai a te tūrama arotahi ki a Peters rātou ko Jones, Luxon, Seymour.
At Waitangi, with its inbuilt audience participation, we will find out just how much Peters, Jones, Luxon and Seymour enjoy the spotlight.
- Pou Tiaki