The National Party wants to talk about how the Government has got its priorities all wrong, but using kaupapa Māori as the stick to beat ministers with is both lazy and regressive, writes political editor Jo Moir
Comment: Christopher Luxon wants to talk about potholes so much that he’s shoe-horned them into a debate about bilingual road signs.
As if saying potholes three times in the media mirror might make them the actual issue, Luxon is repeating the word ad nauseum to try distract from his transport spokesperson who thinks important road signs should be only in English.
As one former politician put to me, “If they think we’re hard done by here they should try arriving at Tel Aviv airport at midnight to drive to Jerusalem only to find every road sign has Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and English on them”.
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Bilingual signs aren’t scary or even particularly transformational – they’re a logical next step in familiarising New Zealanders and overseas visitors with a language that is not only official on Aotearoa’s shores, but a proud part of this country’s story.
Luxon knows all of that to be true and is himself learning te reo.
He’s the guy who tried to trademark ‘Kia Ora’ when he was the boss of Air New Zealand and is the first National Party leader in more than two decades to be running candidates in the Māori seats at this year’s election.
Luxon knows the sky won’t fall if te reo gets added to road signs and is “not opposed to them per se”, but thanks to his MP Simeon Brown he’s in yet another race debate.
That’s resulted in him using the different pots of money argument – wrongly implying potholes aren’t getting fixed because transport officials are too busy on bilingual signs – and ignoring the fact significant safety signs would remain English-only.
A faster way to get out of it would have been to simply say Brown got it wrong and Luxon to say he’d told him so.
He wasn’t afraid to say Maureen Pugh got it wrong on climate change not being manmade – he even sent her some reading to get schooled up – yet he’s shown no such discipline around Brown’s remarks.
For whatever reason he would rather die on Brown’s English-only hill than use his power as leader to set the record straight.
Luxon has travelled the world, probably more than most, and is well aware how many other predominantly English-speaking countries have bilingual signs to reflect and embrace other languages and culture.
The signs in question are replacement-only, meaning they’ll only go up when signs are either lost, broken or due for replacing – money is not being diverted away from road maintenance.
And there’s plenty of need for new signs on the East Coast after a string of severe weather events destroyed a heap of them.
If anything, the main problem is the design, and English would be better-placed at the top, as is the case in overseas jurisdictions.
National’s Shane Reti hit the nail on the head when he said you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who can’t identify a big red stop sign, regardless of whether it says stop in English, te reo, or any other language.
With just over four months until the election, now would be a good time for some politicians to wake up to the real challenges facing New Zealanders – taking issue with our indigenous culture and language ain’t it.
It’s not just road signs though. Luxon himself entered the debate a few days before Brown, saying he didn’t think government departments should be called by their Māori names because it’s hard to understand them.
Luxon shot himself in the foot by easily recalling both versions of the names for three different departments when pointing out the difficulty.
You don’t have to look far for other examples – such as National MP Stuart Smith getting hot under the collar about New Zealand’s official name and wanting a referendum, as if that is front and centre for everyday Kiwis.
National is completely right to be holding the Government to account over its spending and its priorities.
The public rely on the Opposition and the media to do that.
But National’s falling into a habit of using race relations to make its point, often at public meetings where it’s easier to keep the audience on side than have a difficult exchange.
In an election year, choosing to take the easy path only further fractures society.
For the most part, New Zealanders have moved on from that kind of politics – even Luxon’s deputy Nicola Willis says she’s excited her children have ready access to te reo through what they see around them, saying most New Zealanders agree that’s a good thing.
With just over four months until the election, now would be a good time for some politicians to wake up to the real challenges facing New Zealanders – taking issue with our indigenous culture and language ain’t it.
