Audrey Young is the New Zealand Herald’s senior political correspondent. She was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018.
OPINION
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The rallies around the country were peaceful but there were violent undertones in Te Pāti Māori’s messaging that are highly disturbing. The ads promoting a day of action featured guns against a fiery backdrop. Co-leader Rawiri Waititi now talks openly about revolution inside and outside Parliament, and his wife, Kiri, in a much-publicised TikTok post, talks about overthrowing the Government.
There is no shortage of Māori policies within the coalition against which to foment dissent and convince a new generation that the Government is hell-bent on making Māori second-class citizens in their own country, and on “exterminating” Māori cultural values.
But how this should be responded to politically is difficult.
There is no coherent leadership within the Government on the issue beyond the same sloganeering that TPM resorts to.
This growing movement presents a special challenge to the Labour Party; whether to say and do nothing and allow the Government to handle a problem largely of its own making, or to set out an alternative vision of what New Zealand could look like.
If it endorses TPM’s agenda, it will be unelectable.
What Te Pāti Māori is suggesting appears to go a lot further than a modern recreation of the movement being discussed at the hui taumata today hosted by Ngāti Kahungunu at Omāhu Marae.
It looked for a while that Te Pāti Māori was planning to boycott the Budget altogether.
Its MPs remained absent for the reading of the Budget. But they came back into the House for Waititi to deliver his budget speech, which set out his funding formula for the Māori parliament.
“I am one in a million,” he said.
“I am 20 per cent of this country. I expect nothing less than 20 per cent of the total budget in this country. That’s what I expect in a kāwanatanga space. Not only that, on top of [that], if I make up 50 per cent of the male prison population, then te iwi Māori should receive 50 per cent of that budget.
“If I make up 64 per cent of the female prison population, I deserve that proportion of the budget. If Māori tamariki make up 80 per cent of Oranga Tamariki, I deserve that proportion of the budget. This is what a budget should [look] like for Māori in a kāwanatanga space.
“We are all taxpayers. We’re all ratepayers. Remember that this Government continues to make its funds and its money and its ability to have a budget on stolen Māori land, assets, and resources. This is what your budget should look like.”
Whether Te Pāti Māori can maintain the momentum it began this week is yet to be seen, but it requires some careful thinking in the coalition Government - and thinking that will not simply add to TPM’s arsenal.
“While Willis pledged to reduce debt, she is in fact going to have to borrow more. The situation is a bit like someone taking out an overdraft to cover their living costs, because they’ve taken a pay cut, and then stopping their Netflix subscription to pay for a new couch.”
Oops! It goes to serious former Labour MP Michael Wood, who tweeted about the $68 million specific fiscal risk over the Cook Strait ferries - except the figure 68 was a reference to the page number where more detail could be found.
Bouquet
Political commentator Ben Thomas. Photo / Supplied
Goes to funny commentator Ben Thomas who, shortly after the declaration of independence by Te Pāti Māori, tweeted: “Reserving my opinion on the budget until I see what kind of tax cuts the TMP Parliament is offering”.
