Who is our Prime Minister?
As David Seymour, and Winston Peters continue to grab the spotlight and hog headlines with their US Style soundbites, the question of who really is in charge comes into play...
In the 2023 General Election, ACT New Zealand came in fourth, winning 8.64% of votes, and 11 total seats.
So why does it feel like we are in an ACT-lead government?
There are two factors: The first is that ACT leader David Seymour seems hell-bent on pushing US-Style culture wars, especially anti-Maori policies, his biggest being the Treaty Principles Bill.
His showboating, blatant disregard for facts and experts, cringe memes, and pushing the bill as an “equal rights issue” has predictably put a lot of light on him, making him a divisive figure. Unfortunately and as much as we don’t want to admit it, his unrelenting pig-headedness can and has been misinterpreted as good leadership, a person who is committed to delivering what they advertised, even when that something could have disastrous effects.
This brings us to the second factor: Christopher Luxon seems to only want the title of Prime Minister and none of the responsibility, which makes him a great pawn for Seymour, Winston Peters, and some of his own more ambitious MPs.
That is when I came up with the idea for today’s comic, a simple way to summarise this feeling.
Christopher Luxon seemed to have made his position on the Treaty Principals Bill clear during Koroneihana: the bill had no future beyond first reading. Immediately following this though, Winston Peters, speaking in the House on behalf of the Prime Minister, said if there's compelling evidence to change position on the bill then Luxon would.
Luxon didn’t scold, or show any sign of putting his deputy in his place, instead meekly said that the matter was just an "inside the bubble beltway story" and National's position was clear.
But this is an ongoing problem for Luxon: Seymour and Peters speaking on his behalf, or over him, and Luxon showing no spine whatsoever. Even when his coalition partners downplay the climate crisis, Luxon comes running to his defense. Nor does he show leadership and strip MPs from his coalition partners who hold titles such as ‘smoke-free minister’ who gave tax breaks to tobacco giants after being heavily lobbied, or an ‘associate firearms minister’ who the police have urged to strip gun reform policies from because she included 17 firearms interest groups in a targeted consultation process and excluded the police.
But he seems to downplay this or outright dodge the questions when pressured by journalists and opposition, in fact, he looks downright annoyed that he’s expected to have to answer them. Luxon seems more relaxed making eye-rolling TikToks and traveling the world shaking hands and taking photo-ops than having to do any actual ‘prime ministering’.
So it can genuinely be hard to take his word on anything, as he seems like such a spinless push over - as long as he can hold onto his title - and that’s not a great sign for the future.
Danz.
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Spot on! Unfortunately 🫠
Well said!