The folly of agreeing to Act New Zealand party leader David Seymour’s polarising plans for legislation defining the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, so Mr Luxon could stitch together a coalition which he could then lead, was visible for all to see.
More than 40,000 people, from the north and south and of all ages and all backgrounds — not just Māori and Pākehā — homed in on Parliament Grounds to make their anger clear at Mr Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill.
The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti came from as far as Bluff and Cape Reinga to the gusty streets of Wellington to protest against the Bill, which would change the interpretation of the Treaty’s principles and redress Mr Seymour’s overblown concerns that Māori are currently given more of a say than non-Māori on many nationwide matters.
By allowing the Bill to gain enough support to pass its first reading in the House last week, the absent on the day Mr Luxon helped drive a wedge between Māori and the Crown, and started undoing decades of good work to bring people together.
If Mr Luxon had shown more backbone with Mr Seymour in the coalition talks last year it would have saved a great deal of unnecessary anxiety and stopped goodwill going down the drain. The eyes of the world — especially those of indigenous peoples — really are on us after last week’s extraordinary scenes in Parliament, when Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke tore up the Bill and launched into a vigorous haka.
Whether or not you believe her behaviour was appropriate in the House, coverage of the haka has gone viral around the world, with tens of millions of views on social media platforms.
Mr Seymour’s appearance at the hikoi was unsurprisingly brief yesterday afternoon, lasting just a few minutes. Mr Luxon, despite saying he would be prepared to meet a delegation from the hīkoi, did not do so. Instead, a group of National MPs received the march.
We will never know exactly what was going through Mr Luxon’s mind yesterday, when he saw the vast gathering outside.
He told media "the reality, frankly, is many of them are Te Pāti Māori-affiliated". His message remained, "our longstanding position, as I’ve said from day one, is we don’t support the Bill and it won’t be becoming law".
Mr Seymour said he had gone outside to listen, because people had made a long journey and that was his job as a parliamentarian.
However, "it was quite difficult to hear a lot of what was being said".
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters called the hīkoi a waste of time because the Bill was "going nowhere". He also argued about the size of the attendance, suggesting it was only about 22,000.
In some ways, Mr Peters was right to say it was a waste of time. The whole Bill has been a waste of time, and the ructions it has caused were totally avoidable.
Why upset a large proportion of the country for something which was never going to fly?
That is something Mr Luxon needs to ponder. It is perhaps possible that, in his political inexperience, he underestimated the public reaction.
The Bill has also potentially damaged the National Party’s reputation which has, until now, been a trusted partner in the Crown-Māori relationship.
Sir Doug Graham, Chris Finlayson and former prime minister Jim Bolger were all widely respected for their work on Treaty settlements.
Mr Luxon appears to have put his own prime ministerial desires ahead of the good of New Zealand and New Zealanders in giving this Bill tacit initial support.
It will be interesting to see what the political cost of this stunt is to him and National.
One thing which hasn’t been a waste of time is the sense of unity propagated from such a pointless exercise on the government’s part.
