In recent weeks there has been much commentary about Māoridom being more united than it has been for many years, brought together through opposition to some of the policies of the coalition government.
This year’s 184th commemoration of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which drew crowds far bigger than usual, did not end that opposition.
While there was no shortage of drama, confrontational moments and feisty talk, the anger felt by many over a variety of government policies did not boil over into ugliness. The importance of aroha was emphasised by several speakers.
There will be mixed views about Mr Luxon’s speech, not just because chunks of it were cut and pasted from his speech a year ago when he was in Opposition.
There are those who will believe its very dullness and avoidance of the elephant in the room, coalition partner Act New Zealand’s Treaty Principles Bill, was a clever way of taking some heat out of the situation.
Others will see it as lazy and tin-eared because of its failure to directly address the issues he has no doubt been hearing much about in his various discussions with iwi leaders.
There has been criticism his failure to adapt his prepared speech to reflect the mood of the occasion shows his greenness as a politician and an inability to think on his feet.
He told RNZ he wanted repetition and consistency when there was a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about National’s support for the Treaty.
"The message is really clear, the Treaty is sacrosanct, it's our founding document, it's in the constitution of the National party ... we're deeply, deeply committed to it and it's not changing," he said.
He stated National would be supporting Act’s Bill to first reading but not beyond that.
The Bill is not the only issue which remains hanging over the Government’s relationship with Māori.
Among the ongoing concerns are the dismantling of the Māori Health Authority, the repeal of the smokefree legislation, and the as yet undefined proposal, as part of the New Zealand First coalition agreement, to amend the Waitangi Tribunal legislation to "refocus the scope, purpose, and nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation".
Fears the coalition government is attempting to wind back gains made in the use of te reo Māori in public settings have not gone away either.
In a post-Waitangi Day television interview, Mr Luxon said he wanted to encourage greater use of te reo Māori.
The Government has an opportunity to show that when transport minister Simeon Brown makes a call on whether to support the introduction of a variety of bilingual road signs when existing signs need to be replaced.
Discussing this proposal in the lead-up to the election, Mr Brown raised spurious concerns about confusion from bilingual road signs even though people in other countries where similar signs are used do not have problems with it.
Kura/school signs are already with us, courtesy of a 2022 rule change, and the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi reports consultation over them found 90% of respondents supported them.
Mr Brown said recently he is yet to make a decision on the proposal to proceed with the 94 bilingual signs but would do so "in the coming weeks".
Perhaps Mr Luxon needs to gently but firmly suggest to Mr Brown this should go ahead.
It would be a small gesture, but one which might send a message that National can lead on Māori issues rather than be constantly at the behest of its coalition partners.
