Luxon said on Newstalk ZB this morning that it was clear to him that National and Te Pāti Māori had fundamentally different views on many issues.
Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere claims Luxon is trying to scare people with the prospect of “horis” getting close to power, but he believes the National leader will want to negotiate if the Māori Party holds the balance of power following the election.
Luxon said it was now clear that the bridge between National and Te Pāti Māori was too wide to close. They had very different views of things including co-governance, the one-person, one-vote principle and whether Treaty settlements were full and final.
He believed the party had a “separatist agenda”.
Luxon had earlier said it was highly unlikely National would be able to work with Te Pāti Māori, but he was definitively ruling them out to make it clear to voters that in the event Te Pāti Māori was the so-called kingmaker, National would not be in the game.
He said that meant a vote for them was for a potential Labour/Greens/Māori Party coalition – which he said would be a “coalition of chaos”.
“Te Pāti Māori of 2023 is a very different party to the one National signed a confidence and supply agreement with three times from 2008.”
Tamihere believed the National Party was using scaremongering tactics.
“What they’re trying to do is scare people into thinking if the hories get anywhere near the power, we’ve got problems and that’s just so untrue and it licenses people just to keep attacking us as they do.”
Despite Luxon’s comments, Tamihere was confident the National leader’s tune would change if circumstances dictated.
“I guarantee you, on October 15, if the Māori Party hold balance of power, Mr Luxon will be calling.
“He wants to be the Prime Minister as much as anyone.”
He said he was open to having a “grown-up conversation” with Luxon after the election, but said National had sent a strong message that wouldn’t be received kindly by Māori.
“This is such a tight election, it’s going to turn nasty and [Luxon] just kicked the ball off.”
Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Deborah Ngarewa-Packer have both previously all but ruled out being part of a National government, saying they could not work with parties that did not take a Treaty-centric view – and taking aim at National’s likely governing partner Act in particular.
Ngarewa-Packer has also pointed to the drop in support for Te Pāti Māori over the time it was in government with National – which resulted in it losing all of its seats in Parliament in 2017.
It comes after a dramatic day in Parliament yesterday in which both Te Pāti Māori co-leaders were kicked out for performing a welcome for Meka Whaitiri, who had returned to Parliament for the first time since quitting Labour to stand for Te Pāti Māori.
She is currently considered an independent MP, but is sitting with Te Pāti Māori MPs, and has an office with them.
Luxon said the events in Parliament had been “a total shambles”.
“It’s a real mess. You saw a bunch of stunts and grandstanding in Parliament that just is not where the New Zealand public is at.”
He took aim at the problems on the left such as the resignation of Elizabeth Kerekere from the Greens and Whaitiri from Labour.
He said New Zealand deserved a government that was focused on the economy.
