{"id":262933,"date":"2026-02-01T20:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/262933\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T20:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:24:07","slug":"prime-minister-christopher-luxon-congratulates-teen-running-star-sam-ruthe-after-smashing-mile-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/262933\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon congratulates teen running star Sam Ruthe after smashing mile record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">Ruthe said he really appreciated the Prime Minister\u2019s words. <\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">This morning Luxon kicked off a week of interviews ahead of a long-awaited visit to Waitangi \u2013 after his absence last year under the cloud of the Treaty Principles Bill. <\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">He is set to return to the Treaty grounds this Friday with coalition partner Act\u2019s Treaty Principles Bill no longer a central focus of protesters. <\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">Luxon received criticism last year for not attending while the Treaty Principles Bill was yet to be voted down at its second reading.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">Luxon is also dealing with a deepening row between National and NZ First over the NZ-India Free Trade Agreement after he dismissed Winston Peters\u2019 immigration concerns as \u201cwrong\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">He has also not yet commented about an on-camera incident in which a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/wellington\/investigation-launched-after-firefighter-makes-crude-gesture-behind-pm-christopher-luxon\/FF4TZCDBYRBGNLEHXFMQWBBYZY\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/wellington\/investigation-launched-after-firefighter-makes-crude-gesture-behind-pm-christopher-luxon\/FF4TZCDBYRBGNLEHXFMQWBBYZY\/\">firefighter made a crude gesture<\/a> behind her back. Fire and Emergency said it did not condone the woman\u2019s behaviour and has opened an investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">Luxon has not attended Waitangi since 2024, when he promised a \u201crelentless\u201d focus on improving the economy in his first term in Government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">In 2025, the PM was criticised for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/northland-age\/news\/waitangi-2025-an-absent-christopher-luxon-marama-davidsons-return-and-the-tension-raising-treaty-bill\/ZSNLJEB5NNDK5L4SKASBZSQZLA\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/northland-age\/news\/waitangi-2025-an-absent-christopher-luxon-marama-davidsons-return-and-the-tension-raising-treaty-bill\/ZSNLJEB5NNDK5L4SKASBZSQZLA\/\">spending Waitangi Day with Ngai T\u0101hu<\/a> in the South Island, while the controversial Treaty Principles Bill was still before a select committee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\">This year he will be in Auckland on February 6, but will attend Waitangi on February 5 to meet with the Iwi Chairs Forum and attend the official politicians\u2019 welcome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vwaNpWtPaxhXkxNi\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ruthe said he really appreciated the Prime Minister\u2019s words. This morning Luxon kicked off a week of interviews&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,16426,150496,150495,150497,194,16427,42782,6722,111,43,139,69,415,1974,8808,110304,18460,12819,33552,2737,5163,35111],"class_list":["post-262933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-christopher","tag-congratulated","tag-congratulates","tag-fastestever","tag-kiwi","tag-luxon","tag-mile","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prime","tag-record","tag-running","tag-ruthe","tag-sam","tag-sensation","tag-smashing","tag-star","tag-teen","tag-zealander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}