You may have noticed that since becoming leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon's favorite way to gain attention is through a bit of Maori-bashing. Some might claim that he should be afforded some
leniency because he's a novice politician. However Luxon and the right wing in general have been particularly contrived in the way they use identity
politics to remain in the media spotlight.
From ruling out working with Te Pāti Māori, whom Luxon labels "radicals", to promising to remove Māori language road signs and replace dual language Ministry logos, Luxon has recently been emboldening racists like never before on the campaign trail. He has even promised to scrap the Māori Health Authority, change sentencing laws, and repeal co-governance legislation (which would disproportionately and negatively affect Māori people), in what has been a relentlessly racist campaign similar to Don Brash's infamous campaign in 2004, which subsequently resulted in the National Party losing the election.
Yesterday, Maori News reported:
'What do we do about that radical organisation, the Waitangi Tribunal?': Luxon responds to Māori-related questions at public meeting
But most of the questions he received afterwards were expressed as complaints about other issues, especially race relations and the role of Māori in society, the NZ Herald says.
“Where do you stand on the fact that the Māori language is given priority?” asked a woman called Rita, who said she had emigrated from Britain 20 years ago. The audience applauded.
Luxon made it clear his party stood for “one person, one vote”. It would “scrap the Māori Health Authority” and say “no to co-governance and separate systems”.
The problem for Luxon is that most Kiwis are not racist, so he has to tread a very fine line between the extreme sentiments expressed by white supremacists and their political party of choice, the ACT party, and those who quietly accept racism and will support National for other things such as their fiscal policies, which are largely uncosted and few and far between. This has resulted in Luxon often stepping over the line, whereby either Chris Bishop or Nicola Willis have had to try and make excuses for or roll back Luxon's racist statements.
Of course, the National Party's racist campaigning only works if their media propagandists are also able to promote the idea that New Zealand is a completely divided country. To a degree, they have been successful in making older, predominantly white New Zealanders more fearful that their privilege will end if the lives of impoverished people improve, which, in reality, is simply not the case. Collectively, everyone is poorer if a sector of the population is impoverished due to regressive government policy based on race, particularly when the target group has historically been marginalised by similar socially destructive legislation that has yet to be properly rectified.
However, the main problem with Luxon's racist campaigning isn't so much that he's promoting disunity; it's more that the National Party and mainstream media are causing real-world problems for a minority group while trying to gain support from the majority. In essence, this election isn't just about who has the best policies; it's more about how racist New Zealand is and how divided we wish to be in the future?
