Māori rights advocate calls out minister over ‘race-baiting’ language on school lunch issue

Indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata has criticised Children’s Minister Karen Chhour for her comments.

By Layla Bailey-McDowell of RNZ

A Māori rights advocate says the Government is “failing its responsibilities to tamariki and whānau”, and doing so in a way that stirs racial division for political gain, but the Act Party says criticism like this is causing more division, with David Seymour labelling the comments as an “obsession with race”.

Indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata has criticised Children’s Minister Karen Chhour for comments directed at whānau Māori and the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme.

A recent Facebook post by the minister responded to a petition calling for an overhaul of the Government’s free school lunch contract, describing some of the food as “horrible, disgusting and inedible”.

The post was shared by the Act Party’s Facebook page, and Seymour.

In her post, Chhour highlighted a section of an RNZ article quoting the author of the petition, Tania Waikato, explaining the concept of manaakitanga in te ao Māori and the important role kai plays in upholding this tikanga.

In her Facebook post, Chhour wrote: “If that’s the case, why are so many Māori kids not being fed at home? Parents need to take some responsibility.

“And the Government’s opponents should be ashamed of themselves for using hungry kids as political props to push their agenda.”

Ngata believes this type of language not only incites harm but deflects focus from the real issue, which she said is the Government’s failure to deliver on its responsibilities.

“The point was to distract from the fact that they have a core responsibility, that they have dedicated funding - and with that funding and their accepted responsibility to deliver a service which they have failed to deliver, they’ve tried to push that off to whānau,” she said.

“Well of course we always have responsibilities as whānau, but the fact of the matter is that they have millions of dollars and a responsibility to deliver on those millions of dollars.”

Ngata says the real issue is the Government’s failure to deliver on its responsibilities. Photo / Andy Ashworth

Ngata told RNZ that the minister had “obviously misdirected the attention towards whānau - as if they have that responsibility and the funding that goes along with it”.

She also accused Minister Chhour of using her experience in state care to claim moral authority, while ignoring structural harm and whakapapa-based duties to care for tamariki Māori.

“You’ve used your own mamae as a political tool. You abused her too. And of course, you had to do that in order to abuse all of our children as well.”

The incident highlights a wider issue around online hate and the need for stronger protections in Aotearoa. Photo / 123RF

Calls for stronger hate speech protections

Ngata said the incident highlights a wider issue around online hate and the need for stronger protections in Aotearoa.

She accused both Minister Chhour and Act Party leader David Seymour of using “race-baiting” language that incites racialised harm.

“There is real harm that happens as a result of that kind of race-baiting language. It fails our basic standards of decency, and it fails international standards that New Zealand officials are expected to uphold.”

In Aotearoa we have the Harmful Digital Communications Act, which is set up to “deter, prevent, and mitigate harm caused to individuals by digital communications; and provide victims of harmful digital communications with a quick and efficient means of redress”.

However, Ngata said it still has a lot of work to do before it can be effective in protecting Māori and many other marginalised groups from online hate speech.

“And this is why an anti-racism - National Action Plan - is so necessary in Aotearoa,” Ngata said.

“We are lagging behind the rest of the world in meeting the standards around hate speech and hate crime.”

She said New Zealand is increasingly showing up in global forums monitoring extreme hate speech online.

“I get messages from hate speech online, hate speech analysts overseas, routinely, around New Zealand-based online personalities who are fostering and inciting hatred towards marginalised communities, both in Aotearoa and internationally.”

Ngata said there is still a “parochial attitude” that assumes New Zealand’s geographic isolation offers protection.

“But we are just not keeping up with the fact that this is a globalised phenomenon, and the internet has broken down a lot of those geographic boundaries - enabling hate speech to fly quite swiftly around the world, arriving here, and also originating from here.”

She said elected officials have a responsibility to call out harmful and racist comments.

“This type of speech only promulgates when it is allowed to happen or when it’s assumed as being acceptable. And so it’s incumbent upon everybody to speak out against this, but particularly elected officials.”

Children’s Minister Karen Chhour declined to comment. Photo / Samuel Rillstone, RNZ

RNZ requested a response from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour regarding the concern raised. In an email her office said “it feels like this has passed” and declined to comment.

In a statement to RNZ, Seymour said comments made by Ngata “show an obsession with race”.

“We need to call out and stop tolerating this race-obsessed thinking.

“Karen responded to comments that stereotyped Māori, pointing out the absurdity of the original comments that all Māori value feeding children when there are Māori children who are going hungry. That may be an uncomfortable truth, but treating people as racial stereotypes gets us nowhere.”

Seymour said implying Chlour should think a certain way because of her ethnic background is racism.

“Karen’s ability to see past this sort of division and focus solely on the wellbeing of children is part of the reason she is a great Minister for Children,” he said.

“This unchallenged, race-obsessed narrative must stop, it is dividing our country and distracting from our ability to problem solve as a country.”