[ad_1]
The poster of a video National leader Christopher Luxon described as “another Labour hit job”, says she went along to the public meeting “absolutely in good faith” and is not aligned to Labour.
A short video was posted on Twitter from a public meeting held in Nelson on Tuesday, where education emerged as a key concern while some of the biggest applause came in response to a question about reversing the te reo Māori names of government departments.
Luxon described the video, which has one audience member asking about te reo road signs, another cutting in and saying “we want some action”, and himself saying to vote to National, as a “Labour hit job”.
“They want to hit me every single week and make it personal. And that’s what happened last night and what’s happened today,” he said on Wednesday. “I’d encourage you to get the full script, get the transcript and watch the full video.”
Kate Davis, the poster of the video, said she went along to the meeting as a member of the public and as a PSA union organiser.
“I went along absolutely in good faith to ask a question about pay equity,” Davis said, saying the union had been lobbying MPs across the political spectrum.
“I wasn’t there to cause trouble or call him out.”
When Davis realised she would not get a question in due to the size of the crowd, she began tweeting about the meeting. The video, captioned, ‘Dear god in hell’, was among other videos and tweets she made.
“I wasn’t prepared for that kind of intolerance,” Davis said in reference to some of the questions.
“I left the meeting, I was quite upset. At any time, he [Christopher Luxon] could have said, let’s talk about poverty and the cost of living.
“The biggest applause was when he was talking crime and gangs and the road signs.”
Davis said she was “appalled at this level of division and ill feeling within the community I live in”.
Her reaction to the video being a Labour beat up, as described by Luxon on the AM Show – “Did I send it to the Labour Party? Am I a member of the Labour Party? No – to all of that.”
“I’m really disappointed Christopher Luxon has taken the opportunity to take a swipe at another party and not take a stand where he stands on te reo,” she said.
Luxon said he supported bilingual signs, “but let’s make sure there’s a choice for people so that if you speak English, you can navigate your government, if you speak te reo, you can navigate your government”.
“I believe in te reo and I also believe in English and I believe in dual language. But the key thing is New Zealanders have to have choice.”
Braden Fastier /Stuff/Stuff
Christopher Luxon pictured during the visit to Nelson.
The meeting
A person, who said they were a National Party member, asked Luxon if he would have the same stance as he did on rescinding Three Waters, on “all government departments that change their names because a lot of us can’t understand it”.
The audience applauds.
“We all understand school, but I’ve seen signs changed to kura, and we just don’t understand all of this,” the question asker said.
Another person in the audience then yells out, “… we’re talking to you, we want some action”.
Luxon replies saying, “The first thing you got to do buddy is you got to vote October the 14th to get me in to the government.”
The audience member, who did not ask the original question, then yells an undecipherable comment to do with October.
Luxon then goes on to talk about Three Waters, which is now Affordable Water Reform, and he said “we’re going to scrap all of that”.
Once he finishes talking about Three Waters, Luxon says, “many of us grew up actually learning te reo version of the national anthem and that’s been fantastic”.
“For many Kiwis, they haven’t had that opportunity. It’s really difficult.”
Luxon gave the example of being in a meeting with a person who was apologetic and felt shameful about not knowing the names of government agencies.
“And I was thinking yeah, well, Waka Kotahi is the Transport Agency and Te Whatu Ora and Te Pūkenga… that’s actually the Health Department and that’s also the polytechnics.”
“I am of the view that we should rename our government departments in English so that people can navigate … but I’m also of the view that we should have te reo on there and we can have dual language on it but you have to have a choice.”
Both Waka Kotahi and Te Whatu Ora have the English name located underneath on the web pages, while all three have the English translation on the Google search result.
“So as long as you have choice, and as long as importantly, you know, what your government departments are, that’s important to me,” Luxon said.
”And we deliver the services, as I said before, on the basis of people’s needs, not their ethnicity.”
[ad_2]