Kei runga i te tereina wairanu: He aha ai e rerekē ana ā tātou kaitorangapū i a tātou

Tuesday, 23 June 2026

Joel Maxwell (Te Rarawa) is a senior journalist.

Kua whakamāoritia tēnei pūrongo e tētahi hinengaro rorohiko, ā, kua hihiratia e te kaiwhakamāori a Puna, a Joel Maxwell, nāna te pūrongo i whakapai hoki i mua i te whakaputa hei pūrongo reorua. Nā Straker me Microsoft te hinengaro rorohiko i whakawhanake.

This story, originally in English only, was translated into reo Māori by an AI tool then checked and edited by Stuff kaiwhakamāori Joel Maxwell before publication as a bilingual news story. The AI tool was developed by Straker and Microsoft.

HUATAU: E mōhio ana koe ki te mea e tino whakararuraru ana i a au mō te minita Aotearoa Tuatahi, a Shane Jones, e whakapau ana i te $63,000 i runga i tētahi haerenga ātaahua ki Kānata, ki te whakaaweawe i ngā uru whakapīwari nunui, ko te ratonga limo wā-katoa i whakamahia e ia.

OPINION: You know the thing that really bugs me about NZ First minister Shane Jones spending $63,000 on some swanky trip to Canada, to schmooze mining big wigs, was the on-call limo service he used.

Read this story in English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Pākehā ki konei.

Ehara i te umanga limo o Aotearoa. Kāore tātou i Aotearoa i tae ki te toua i ō tātou ngutu i ētahi o ngā mahi pūtea tāke.

It wasn’t even a New Zealand limo business. We in Aotearoa didn’t even get to dip our beak in some of the taxpayer-funded action.

Heoi anō, i ringihia e ia he moni ki roto i te ōhanga o tētahi whenua i whakatau kia rua ngā reo matua, ko tētahi ehara i te reo Ingarihi.

E maumahara ana koe ki te reo Ingarihi - ehara i te reo taketake - kei te kaha tohe a Winston i te whakamana hei reo whai mana o te ao nui?

Instead he poured money into the local economy of a country that decided to have two main languages, one of which isn’t even English. Remember how important the English language is? It’s the not-reo one that Winston Peters is valiantly legislating as the official tongue of the universe.

Ko te mea kāore au e pīrangi ki te whakawhiu i a Jones anake, nā te mea e ai ki tētahi hoa, he wāhanga noa iho a ia o tētahi tauira o te whakapau moni whaiaro a te Kāwanatanga Haumi.

Actually I don’t want to pick on Jones alone, because as a friend pointed out he was simply part of a rapidly forming pattern of personal spending by the Coalition Government.

Tērā a Karen Chhour o ACT e kore e pai ki te kore taraiwa ki te taunga rererangi. I pau i a ia te tata ki te $17,000 i runga i te tūnga taunga rererangi puta noa i ngā tau e rua i roto i tētahi pakanga e haere ana ki a Didi. Mēnā he kaupapa tino koi tēnei nā ACT kia kino ai te tangata ki te utu tāke, kua tutuki rātou i taua kaupapa ki a au.

There was ACT’s Karen Chhour who simply refuses to not drive to the airport. She spent nearly $17,000 on airport parking across a couple of years in a running battle with Didi. If this is a clever plan by ACT to make people hate paying taxes, then it‘s worked on me.

Heoi anō, ko te mea nui e pā ana ki ngā pire a Chhour ko tāna whai i te ara o tōna hiahia kia 'taraiwa whaiaro'. Nōnahea a Jones i taraiwa whaiaro?

Ā, kāore au i te whakamahi i tētahi kupu whakamauru mō te wā i tāpuia ai e ia taua porn hōtēra i runga i tētahi kāri nama kaiutu tāke i ngā rā o mua.

At least Chhour’s racking up bills while following her preference to “self-drive”. When was the last time Jones did a self-drive? And I’m not using a euphemism for when he booked that hotel porn on a taxpayer credit card back in the day.

I runga a Jones i te katoa o ngā whakapaunga i runga i ngā haerenga ā-kāinga me ngā noho i tēnei kaupeka nā runga i tana whakapau i te $420,000; Ko Louise Upston o Nahinara i te tuarua i te $400,000.

Jones topped overall domestic travel and accommodation spending this term coming in at about $420,000; National’s Louise Upston was second at $400,000.

Maumaharatia a Upston - koia rā te minita whakawhanake hapori e tāmi mai ana i ngā kaiwhiwhi pūtea, nāna anō i whiwhi i te $52,000 ia tau hei moni noho mō tētahi o ōna whare i Pōneke. Āe, e mōhio ana ahau he tika tēnā i raro i ngā ture. Engari … Kei te mōhio koe.

Ahhh Upston - she was the social development minister putting the screws on freeloading beneficiaries, who claimed $52,000 a year accommodation allowance for an apartment she owns in Wellington. Yes, I’m aware that’s perfectly legit under the rules apparently. But … you know.

Me mātua whakahaere tētahi i tēnei haumitanga. E mōhio ana hoki tātou katoa ehara i te pirimia. I roto i tētahi āhutanga rerekē, ka tae tuatahi a Christopher Luxon i te hītori o Aotearoa hei PM tino porehu, ahakoa ko Norm Kirk i noho i te tau whakamutunga o tōna kaupeka i te urupā o Waimate.

Somebody needs to take charge of this coalition. And we all know it won’t be the prime minister. In an odd paradox Christopher Luxon will surely make New Zealand history as the most phantasmagorical PM ever, beating even Norm Kirk who spent the last year of his term in Waimate Lawn Cemetery.

Ka inoi atu ahau ki a Winston kia mahi i tētahi mea, engari ki taku ohorere kua whakamihi a ia ki tana tuarua mō te whiwhi i tētahi whakahekenga utu tino pai mō te limo. Ināianei kei te whakaaro ahau, kei te ohorere ahau i tā Jones hīkoi noa iho mai i te limo ki tōna rūma hōtēra, kāhore kē i haere ia ki reira i runga i te taumata nā tētahi ope o ngā unaka tino pai o Torōna i kawe.

I would ask Winston to do something but to my shock he’s been praising his deputy for getting such a heroic deal with the limo. Now that I think about it, I’m appalled that Jones had to walk from the limo to his hotel room when he could have been carried there on a litter by an entourage of Toronto’s foremost eunuchs.

Whakapono, kāore rānei, ā, he āhua whakamataku, he kiriwhakatauira a Jones. He kiriwhakatauira ngā kaipōrangapū katoa.

Believe it or not, and somewhat horrifyingly, Jones is a role model. All politicians are role models.

Nō reira, hei mairangatia te angitū, ka kaha mahi ahau kia whai i ētahi akoranga kia tuku ai ki ngā rangatahi Māori kāhore he whakatūpatotanga pēnei i aua a Aesop.

So in the interests of trying to be positive, I’m working hard to find some lessons he can impart to rangatahi Māori that aren’t more of an Aesopian warning.

Anei te akoranga: Kaua rawa e whakaae ki te utu tāke i runga i te tūru premium economy ina taea e koe te tono i te wāhanga pakihi.

Here goes: Never accept premium economy on the taxpayer when you can demand business class.

Ki te titiro tika tātou ki taku whakaaro ka taea e tātou te kite i tētahi kupu whakarite mō te whāinga tiketike, tētahi mea rānei.

If we squint the right way I think we can discern a metaphor for aiming high or something.

Ahakoa rā, e mōhio ana ahau i haere a Labour mō tētahi wā maroke me ngā pānuitanga kaupapahere, engari kei te whakatakoto rātou i ngā mea pēnei i te whakamahere ki te whakakore i ngā utu rongoā, kia māmā ake te waka tūmatanui mō ngā kaimahi pēnei i a au (ka penapena ahau e $30 i te wiki - he $1560 tērā i te tau, tērā pea ka whiwhi ahau i te hawhe rā o ngā Ratonga Limousine Jassi i taku haerenga panuku ki Torōna), me te tuku matawai kohanga koreutu, e tūmanako ana ahau kia kore rawa e whakamahia anō.

Anyway, I know that Labour went through a bit of a dry spell with policy announcements, but they’re doing stuff like planning to dump prescription charges, make public transport cheaper for worker drones like myself (it will save me $30 a week - that’s $1560 a year, which would maybe get me half a day of Jassi Limousine Services on my next trip to Toronto), and offering free maternity scans, which I’m hoping to never, ever have to use again.

Ina whakaaro ahau ki ēnei mea, kua kore ahau e tino māharahara ki ngā kaitōrangapū e eke ana ki runga i te tereina kuhu me te whakakino i a au hei kiriwhakatauira.

When I think of actual policies I’m no longer quite so bothered about politicians inevitably getting on the gravy train and disappointing me as role models.

Ka tino āwhina katoa ā rātou kaupapa here ki ngā tāngata pēnei i a tātou.

Good policies will all be quite helpful to people like us.

Koia tēnā te raruraru, ki taku whakaaro. I a rātou e haere ana i aua tatau i te Pāremata, ehara nga kaipōrangapū i te iwi pēnei i a tātou. I hangaia e tātou he whare kīngi mō rātou i Molesworth St, ā, ko ētahi e kaha noho ana i reira.

And the last half of the previous sentence is part of the problem, I think. As they walk through those doors at Parliament, politicians are instantly not people like us. We built a palace for them on Molesworth St and some obligingly populate it.

Ko te mea pai noa iho ka taea e tātou te tūmanako ko te kore e wareware ki a tātou.

Sometimes I think the best we can hope for is that they don’t forget us.