24/09/2026
There comes a point where parliamentary trolling is done with such precision,
such obvious delight,
that it transcends the form entirely.
At that point, you're no longer watching somebody troll.
You're watching an artist at work.
And as you can see in the below image, Tamatha Paul absolutely loves her work.
Because during the speeches on the Government's new Treaty legislation, which will weaken the obligations government agencies have to uphold Te Tiriti in several laws and remove references to it from others,
Tamatha stood there grinning as she held up a photograph of a certain somebody protesting in support of the Treaty back in 1990.
Even wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Aotearoa” on it.
Tamatha even accompanied her comments with a gleeful wag of her finger towards the person wearing that T-shirt, as if to say, naughty, naughty, for using the word “Aotearoa” to describe New Zealand.
Because the person in the photo that Tamatha Paul was showing was, of course,
Shane Jones.
The very man who is now one of the most vocal supporters of legislation seeking to weaken the place of Te Tiriti in New Zealand law, despite having once stood firmly on the other side of that argument.
Because the Shane Jones in Tamatha's photograph wasn't protesting against the increasing visibility of Māori in New Zealand.
He was fighting for it.
He was a young Māori man proudly wearing the word “Aotearoa” across his chest while protesting in support of Te Tiriti.
Compare that with Shane Jones today.
A senior figure in a New Zealand First party that has spent years turning the use of te reo Māori, Māori names for government agencies and the place of Te Tiriti in public life into culture-war battlegrounds.
The young Shane Jones in Tamatha's photograph would probably have had considerably more in common with the woman holding it than the man she was holding it up to.
Unfortunately, we never got to find out where Tamatha was going next.
Because after she made some remarks about Don Brash that Brash's old buddy, Speaker Gerry Brownlee, took issue with, Brownlee brought her speech to an early end.
And if I'm New Zealand First, I'm sending Gerry Brownlee a thank-you card.
Because the speech Tamatha Paul didn't get to finish is one that, once upon a time, Shane Jones himself might have made.
And we don't even have to speculate about that.
Because once upon a time,
Shane Jones did.
In 2007, New Zealand First brought a bill before Parliament seeking to delete references to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi from New Zealand legislation.
And the Labour MP who stood up in the House to oppose it, delivering part of his speech in te reo Māori?
Shane Jones.
The same Shane Jones now sitting inside New Zealand First as his Government passes legislation weakening Treaty obligations in some laws and removing Treaty references from others.
Back then, however, Shane Jones had a rather different view of what New Zealand First was trying to do.
He argued that its bill would “confiscate, belittle, and violate” the Treaty of Waitangi.
He called it wrong.
He described the arguments behind it as mischievous.
He said they demonstrated a shallow understanding of New Zealand's history.
And he warned about what could happen when politicians started stripping Treaty references out of legislation.
Nearly twenty years later, Shane Jones isn't standing across the House opposing New Zealand First for doing it.
He's sitting inside New Zealand First helping them do it.
And standing across the House from him is Tamatha Paul.
Young. Māori. Unapologetic. Fighting for Te Tiriti and refusing to make herself smaller or quieter to make anyone else more comfortable.
Everything the young Shane Jones once aspired to be.
At best, everything he once was.
At worst, everything he once claimed to be.
