‘Still a lot of pain’: PM Christopher Luxon challenged at Waitangi by iwi chairs
Wednesday, 4 February 2026
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been challenged by iwi chairs at Waitangi who say there is still “a lot of pain” being felt by Māori.
But Luxon has described the hui as “incredibly positive and very, very constructive”.
“I've been to Iwi Chairs Forum in different formats over a number of years now, and I thought this was the best one that I'd participated in. It was very positive. We had a very good dynamic, which we'd used once before, of just going around the six different sub regions of the country and actually hearing the questions that they wanted to pose.”
Luxon spent more than two hours this morning in the meeting with the iwi chairs, flanked by 12 ministers, and will attend another meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
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Luxon said there was “really good alignment” on working together on issues like improving law and order and health outcomes for Māori, and iwi involvement in infrastructure development
“There's more for us to do to turn up the volume on all of those areas,” said Luxon.
“We, as a National Party, believe very strongly in localism and devolution, and obviously very consistent with mana motuhake (autonomy).”
Luxon attended Waitangi as prime minister in 2024 and was met with a fierce pōwhiri over the Government’s Treaty Principles Bill which was progressing through Parliament. He skipped heading north in 2025 and instead attended commemorations at Ōnuku in the South Island.
However, the bill has since been killed and Luxon returned this year to a calmer atmosphere on the ground.
Luxon said the Treaty Principles Bill was discussed in the meeting.
“I accept that, ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill was incredibly challenging, you know. And I get that and I understand that. I've spoken very openly with iwi leaders through that period, and subsequently to that as well.
“But again, you sit down in a session like we had today, and what we've got to find is the common ground. And let's focus on the common ground, the 70% that we can agree on that we can actually move in advance forward. Let's do that.”
Te Poari o Ngātiwai chair Aperahama Kerepeti-Edwards said the discussions in the hui included Te Tiriti o Waitangi, what they wanted to achieve for future generations and the protection of the environment.
He said coming together to have those conversations could be difficult and awkward but it was “always beneficial to be able to share the differing viewpoints and pathway from that way forward”.
But there was “still a lot of pain”, he said.
“Our people are hurting, and we're mindful of that. But there's also a calm here as well, and an optimism at the port of what sort of change might be coming back.”
After the meeting, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka was asked how it went. He replied: “It was robust, it was interrogative, but it was an exchange. And that's what these sorts of hui need to be. There needs to be an exchange of ideas, an exchange of investigative queries, but also a sense of optimism and progress.”
In a later press conference, when he was standing beside Luxon who called the meeting “incredibly positive”, Potaka said he was actually talking about politics in general.
“Actually, what I said was politics can be combative and politics can be contentious.”
During a the press conference Luxon was asked whether he could promise he wouldn’t progress something as divisive as the Treaty Principles Bill.
“I don't know what that could be, but I'm not aware of anything of what that could be, but I'm just saying to you very clearly, as I've said publicly, we aren't doing the Treaty Principles Bill.”
Earlier in the day, representatives from kīngitanga, including Kuini Nga wai hono i te po, the Queen, were welcomed to the Treaty Grounds with a pōwhiri.