Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: There are few things more political than a political leak

To the Treaty Principles Bill.

Despite David Seymour's best efforts to pretend that there's absolutely nothing to see here, there is no doubt in my mind that the government is planning to introduce the Treaty Principles Bill tomorrow to try to hide it - because they know full well, we're all going to be completely obsessed and distracted by the US election.

They know that if they get it out on Thursday, tomorrow, it's before the planned Hikoi even sets off on Monday.

I think that indicates that they're trying to bury the thing and get ahead of everything and it shows how much they hating the heat that they're getting for this.

Look, it's politics.

I mean, it feels slightly underhand, it feels a little bit cowardly but it's politics. It's an option available to them and you can't really begrudge them for doing it.

But I don't even think that's the most interesting thing that's going on here.

I think the most interesting thing is that the Waitangi tribunal leaked the fact that the Government was going to do this -apparently within an hour of getting a heads up.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just quickly back to the Treaty Principles Bill. Now, despite
David Semore's best efforts to pretend earlier on in the
show that there's absolutely nothing to see here, there is
no doubt. Don't buy it. There is no doubt in
my mind that the government is planning to introduce the
Treaty Principle's Bill tomorrow pretty much to try to hide
it because they know full well we're all going to
be completely obsessed and distracted by the US election, and

(00:22):
they know that if they get it out on Thursday tomorrow,
it's before the planned Heki even sets off on Monday.
So the he coy against the bill, and so I
think that indicates that they're trying to kind of bury
the thing and get ahead of everything, and it shows
how much the hating the heat that they're getting for this. Look,
it's politics, right, I mean, it feels slightly underhand, it
feels a little bit cowardly, but it's politics, and it's

(00:42):
an option available to them, and you can't really begrudge
him for doing it. But I don't even think that's
the most interesting thing that's going on here. I think
the most interesting thing is it the White Toungui Tribunal
leaked the fact that the government was going to do this,
apparently within an hour of getting a heads up, a
friendly little heads up from the government. They heard it
and they were like, better tell everybody, what are these
guys doing? How naive can you possibly be? They are

(01:05):
pretty much at the White Tonguey Tribunal or by themselves
making a case for why they should be reformed, like
New Zealand first wants to do. What they've done here
is that they have demonstrated just how unbelievably political they
now are. They are not a neutral body, right, They're
not just a neutral body sitting there doing their job
making decisions. They are actively taking on the government of

(01:28):
the day because they do not like the government of
the day. Now, that is weird to me, especially when
it comes to the Treaty Principal's Bill, because this is
a bill that's going nowhere. I mean, the Prime Minister
has already said the thing is gonna die, He's going
to kill it. So why is the White Tonguey tri
Tribunal even wasting what credibility they have trying to kill
a bill that's already gonna die. It feels like a
really weird hill to die on. And if they carry

(01:50):
on like this, they are going to die on a
hill because they will get reformed by New Zealand first,
because there will be a point of which we're all
completely convinced that too political. Yeah, it's about time. They
have already shown their political hand by doing weird things
like taking cases to adjudicate on government policy, which is
kind of outside their remit that they're having a crack
at the government over the spill before even seeing the spill.

(02:12):
But I think that this particular leak takes the cake
because there are a few things more political than a
political leak, and by doing this, they have convinced me
that they actually do need to be reformed to put
them back in their lane. For more from Hither Duplessy
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