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

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

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.

How naïve can you possibly be?

They are pretty much, at the Waitangi Tribunal, all by themselves making a case for why they should be reformed like New Zealand First wants to do.

What they've done here is 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 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 Principles Bill because this is a Bill that's going nowhere.

The Prime Minister's already said the thing is going to die.

He's going to kill it.

So why is the Waitangi Tribunal even wasting what credibility they have trying to kill a Bill that's already going to die?

It feels like a really weird hill to die on.

And if they carry on like this, they are going to die on a hill because they will get reformed by New Zealand First. There will be a point which we're all completely convinced that they're too political like ‘Yeah, it's about time they've already shown their political hand by doing weird things like taking cases to adjudicate on government policy, which is kind of outside their remit and that they're having a crack at the government over this bill before even seeing the bill.’

But I think that this particular leak takes the cake because there are 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.

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