Labour and Henare played happy families on the day, but it was widely known that Henare was unhappy with the party after the T\u0101maki Makaurau byelection last year \u2013 a fact hinted at by other politicians at Waitangi.<\/p>\n
All sides are telling a strand of the truth: Henare is keen to move on and Labour hasn\u2019t forced him to the door, but it\u2019s also true that not everyone is perfectly happy behind the scenes. <\/p>\n
It appears Henare wanted another tilt at winning back T\u0101maki Makaurau at the election this year, while the others in the party were less keen. It also appears there\u2019s been a bit of tension, perhaps even a falling out, between Henare and Willie Jackson, co-chair of the M\u0101ori caucus.<\/p>\n
The waka ceremony during Waitangi Day commemorations. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Jackson is leader Chris Hipkins\u2019 consigliere on all things te ao M\u0101ori. It\u2019s a vital role, given the fraught political landscape: Hipkins needs to maintain some kind of relationship with Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori while distancing himself from them; he also has to unite the left by campaigning against the coalition on M\u0101ori issues, without reigniting the co-governance controversies that helped eject the party from power in 2023. It\u2019s a line Hipkins trod well at Waitangi, in no small part because he\u2019s well advised. <\/p>\n
Jackson has been a key supporter of Hipkins during his time as Opposition leader, which mattered a great deal in the months after the 2023 election, when Hipkins\u2019 position was uncertain. His left-wing bona fides have helped shore up Hipkins\u2019 position when it\u2019s come under attack from the left for his strategically milquetoast centrism, particularly on matters of tax (Jackson backed Hipkins\u2019 CGT call and isn\u2019t shy about critiques of wealth tax backers like David Parker and Phil Twyford). <\/p>\n
The disagreement, if any, isn\u2019t grumpiness with Hipkins\u2019 pivot to the centre \u2013 Henare is on the NZ First-inclined right of the party, and some National MPs joke he\u2019d be a better fit in their caucus (like his cousin Tau or grandfather James). Rather, it\u2019s his role within the party. <\/p>\n
When he left Parliament early during the first sitting block of the year, rumours of an imminent resignation circulated (the official explanation is that his departure that week was unrelated to politics), but that didn\u2019t stop the rumour circulating further. NZ First\u2019s Shane Jones made the decision to go public with the spat<\/a> on Wednesday, wink-wink-nudge-nudge-ing that there was more to the resignation than Labour was letting on. <\/p>\n Jones isn\u2019t an idle speculator. He\u2019s related to Henare (their grandparents were close), and Henare occasionally gilds his Hansard with kind references to the fellow northerner and \u201cuncle\u201d, Jones. Jones\u2019 leader, Winston Peters is also one of Henare\u2019s uncles. The two are close. When Henare was hauled before the Privileges Committee<\/a> over his role in 2024\u2019s unsanctioned parliamentary haka, it was Peters who privately messaged Henare words of support. <\/p>\n As lines of communication between Labour and NZ First withered, Henare was relied upon to keep them open – occasionally to the point of controversy. Last year, Henare found himself the protagonist of a small scandal over his foreign affairs chats with Peters, of which Hipkins was unaware. <\/p>\n Henare also seemed to get lost, by accident or design, in the reshuffling of Labour\u2019s northern candidates. Willow-Jean Prime switched from the general seat of Northland to the M\u0101ori seat of Te Tai Tokerau, once contested by Henare\u2019s grandfather running for National. Retiring Far North Mayor Moko Tepania, who has said he doesn\u2019t want to become an MP \u201cin the short term\u201d, is rumoured to be in the running to replace Prime as the party\u2019s candidate in the general seat. <\/p>\n As for the controversy on the Government\u2019s side, its genesis is far away from Waitangi \u2013 in New Delhi.<\/p>\n The Government\u2019s India Free Trade Agreement has all the ingredients of a major political storm \u2013 one that is expected to make landfall in the next few months. <\/p>\n News of the deal was announced on one of the last days of the year. The Prime Minister joked that the media could go back and enjoy their holidays after his unexpected press conference on the topic, although his published diary suggests he did exactly the same thing, with his December 22 press conference announcing the deal at his last recorded engagement of the year<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s meant precious little scrutiny from the public, or even from Parliament, has been applied to the deal.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t helped by the fact the actual text of the agreement is so hard to come by \u2013 hardly anyone knows what it actually says. The public, and most of Parliament, has no way of bridging the distance between the wildly different claims of the agreement<\/a> being made by the New Zealand and Indian sides. <\/p>\n The genesis of the agreement was entirely political, coming as a campaign commitment made by Luxon at the last election. Parliament\u2019s analysis of the deal, which is only now getting under way, is shot through with politics too. <\/p>\n The John Key Government opened talks in 2011<\/a> but allowed negotiations to wither after the Indian side\u2019s concessions on exports \u201cmisse[d] out probably the most important ones from New Zealand\u2019s point of view\u201d, namely dairy. Some years later, in 2023, the public servant who would go on to negotiate Luxon\u2019s deal warned that it would be \u201cimpossible\u201d for New Zealand to do<\/a> \u201cbecause it is such a significant part of our export profile\u201d. <\/p>\n That proved to be prescient, given the deal announced last year includes next to nothing on dairy, which remains New Zealand\u2019s key export. <\/p>\n While the Government is trumpeting the fact that it includes improved access for 95% of New Zealand\u2019s exports to the country, this neglects the fact that New Zealand hardly exports much with India to begin with and the point of an FTA isn\u2019t just to improve access to existing exporters, but to open the market to new ones. <\/p>\n We exported just twice as much to India last year as we export to Fiji, despite Fiji\u2019s population being one and a half thousand times smaller than India\u2019s. <\/p>\n Labour MP Peeni Henare. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n