The PM and Waitangi

The PM really needs to get over the fact that Harawira senior was rude to her a decade or so ago at Waitangi.  Life goes on, and it is regrettable that the PM has never gone to Waitangi for the full programme.

She is boycotting both the group of cross-party MPs that will be welcomed on to Te Tii Marae this morning and has not accepted an invitation to participate in a leaders debate with National Party leader John Key and others at the marae this afternoon.

Instead she is going to a meeting to confirm the Labour Party candidate for Te Tai Tokerau.  So putting party ahead of country.

Yes Waitangi Day can sometimes be rude. Yes like Don Brash you may get seated next to Tame Iti. But the head of the NZ Government should be at Waitangi for Waitangi Day.

I’ve no problem with temporary stay aways when things go too far, such as when the GG was spat on.  But her boycott of the full programme has been in place for something like a decade – in her own language it is time to move on.