Let the brawling begin

We've had a government for barely a week and already the insults are flying thick and fast.

- Michele Hewitson

Temper, temper. If we thought the over-long election campaign and the interminable wait for a coalition deal were crotchety, crabby affairs, the aftermath seems to be shaping up like a bar room brawl. It's been only a week or so since the coalition was finally formed, but already wild punches and wilder insults are being thrown about. Has there been an outbreak of canine distemper inside the beltway? 

Te Pāti Māori is always up for a scrap. Even before the State Opening of Parliament last Wednesday, Te Pāti Rumble had its troops out in the streets for protests that were originally called "Don't Fuck With Our Whakapapa" but were renamed "National Māori Action Day", which sounds more like one of those annoying public health calls to get a bit more exercise.

What was this action day all about? There was no use asking Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. When first queried about what the protest might be in aid of, he had no idea. When he finally did know what was going on - something to do with "state-sponsored terrorism", according to Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer - he sounded like some sort of libtard, calling the protests "unfair".

Meanwhile, on the morning of the nationwide protest, tempers flared on TVNZ 1's Breakfast show. Sitting next to each other, and looking like they wanted to whack the other with a mere, NZ First deputy leader Shane Jones and NgarewaPacker fought it out for the heavyweight championship of grumpy. Jones, who lives out his political life as though he's perpetually in a Shakespearean production, called the protests "theatre" and accused Te Pāti Māori of trading in "victimhood". Ngarewa-Packer called Jones a "dinosaur".