Christopher Luxon. But despite saying their existence "doesn't make a lot of sense", National will still be looking at standing candidates in "at least one or two of them". Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Tuesday pointed to various Treaty deals struck by previous National-led governments as containing examples of co-governance, asking which Luxon would "go back on" if elected in October.
He said National MPs who struck historic Treaty deals "made the case, they took people with them and it led to generosity of spirit on both sides and actually something we should be incredibly proud about in New Zealand". On the other hand, frankly, is the build-up of massive bureaucracies in Wellington. They're not going away. But he said the "pragmatic" move this year was to stand candidates in them anyway, and denied this was inconsistent with opposition to co-governance.
He said the matter was of national importance, and had been raised with him - he had been challenged at the paepae to stop being afraid of co-governance. I was trying to lay out the context. We do not want two systems of health, two education systems, two justice systems.
At his first post-Cabinet media briefing as prime minister, Hipkins said, regarding co-governance, that he did think the government needed to take a little more time to articulate exactly what it was doing and why in each situation. So, it is a complex issue and I think we owe it to New Zealanders to be a little more thoughtful on our contributions than perhaps some of them have been on recent days.
Hipkins said co-governance could mean different things in different situations and New Zealand needed to have a mature discussion about it, "not one that's informed by bumper-sticker slogans". His first Cabinet meeting as prime minister took place after a swearing-in ceremony around lunchtime Tuesday. He has hinted at rolling back some of the government's agenda to focus on the cost-of-living crisis and inflation.
