Act’s David Seymour, NZ First’s Shane Jones and the battles of Waitangi

THREE KEY FACTS It was politicians’ day at Waitangi today . Act leader David Seymour got a rough reception and Shane Jones complained about it. National’s Tama Potaka led his party on the day.

It’s the David Seymour show. No, wait, it’s the Shane Jones show! Actually, this Waitangi might just turn out to be the Tama Potaka show. Potaka’s a lot less famous than the other two, but he’s the Minister of Māori Crown Relations and Māori Development, and he put a few stakes in the ground today, using language that was surely meant to call out his own boss, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.



First up, Seymour. He said during the pōwhiri to welcome the politicians that his party’s intentions for the Māori language and culture, for fixing the wrongs of the past and for building a better future for Māori children were entirely honourable. The problem was, his critics did not realise that “some people have poured poison in their ears”.

Waitangi’s the place for rhetorical flourishes and, rather proudly, Seymour later informed journalists that this was a Shakespearian reference. In Hamlet , he said, poison in the ears is a metaphor for spreading lies..