Te Pāti Māori isn’t commenting publicly amid widespread condemnation of MP Tākuta Ferris, who overnight doubled down on previous remarks criticising members of various ethnic groups for campaigning for Labour in a recent byelection.
His latest social media video, posted around midnight Tuesday, has been criticised by all other political parties in Parliament, with Labour’s Chris Hipkins saying his comments will incite division and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon calling them “racist”.
Numerous attempts have been made today to get comment from Te Pāti Māori’s co-leaders. A spokesman said on Wednesday morning: “We’ll address this in due course.” But no further statement has been made.
According to Hipkins and the Greens’ co-leaders, the party has apologised privately.
Te Pāti Māori’s co-leaders were absent from the House today, but the Herald approached MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi Clarke to ask for her thoughts and whether she condemned the comments. She would not comment and walked away.
Last week, the Herald revealed Ferris had shared an image of Labour MPs and volunteers campaigning in the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection, with a caption reading: “This blows my mind!! Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā campaigning to take a Māori seat from Māori”.
That post was called “racist” by Labour’s Peeni Henare and Willie Jackson while Te Pāti Māori itself said it “does not condone the language”. Ferris removed the post after being instructed to.
However, as the Herald first reported, Ferris doubled down overnight after sharing a lengthy video defending his previous comments.
“I’m just like, man, this thing just blows my mind. That’s what my post said, this just blows my mind that they’ve got all these ethnic people in this post campaigning in a byelection for a Māori seat,” he said.
“So you got all these other ethnicities campaigning for Labour to take a Māori seat from the Māori people, and straight up e te iwi, that should be unacceptable to us, okay?”
Jackson criticised Ferris’ original post, calling it “racist” and saying he needed to “grow up”. The Labour MP said his party had “relationships with all races”.
Responding to that, Ferris said: “I don’t give a crap who you care about or what you care about. In the Māori seats, it’s about the Māori people. Māori only.”
He said the image of the Labour campaigners was “erasing Māori” and “homogenising Māori as a minority”.
“They’re doing it in plain daylight. This is why I say it blows my mind. They’re homogenising Māori.”
He said that meant making Māori “appear as just another one of these ethnic groups in a Māori seat”.
“That should blow your mind, because it’s completely unacceptable and we need to get to a level where we recognise it as unacceptable and we’re happy to say it’s unacceptable.”
There has been criticism across Parliament of Ferris’ comments.
Speaking from Honiara in the Solomon Islands, Luxon said the remarks “are racist”. He said he had called on all political leaders to “think before they put their mouth into gear”.
Hipkins said: “I absolutely condemn Tākuta Ferris’ comments.
“I contacted the leadership of the Māori Party because I don’t think those comments reflect New Zealanders’ values. I don’t think they reflect what the vast majority of New Zealanders believe.
“The Māori Party once again have apologised for Tākuta Ferris’ comments and said very clearly that that does not represent what the Māori Party believes.”
He said the comments are “not fit for robust debate in the New Zealand political environment”.
“I think they’re going to create division. I just don’t think there’s any place for them.”
Hipkins yesterday wouldn’t call Ferris’ initial post “racist”, but on Wednesday said, “he’s getting well into that territory now”.
The Greens’ co-leader Marama Davidson said there were “diverse communities, migrant and immigrant communities, who have been working hard to support tangata whenua”.
“This is harmful to those communities and to our kaupapa of kotahitanga,” she said.
Davidson said she had spoken with Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who had “once again apologised for Te Pāti Māori and has been very clear that this goes against what they’re working for”.
NZ First leader Winston Peters said Ferris had “lost the plot”.
“If the Māori Party leadership has apologised and called his first racist rant unacceptable what do they now think of Ferris flipping them the bird and doubling down?” Peters said.
“He also said that Labour’s campaign was ‘taking a Māori seat away from Māori’. So now he is saying that Peeni Henare is the ‘wrong type of Māori’.
“Ferris’ arrogance and destructive attitude has now not only placed a firm wedge between Labour and Māori Party, he is also now a clear liability within his own party.”
Peters told reporters the Labour volunteers were “helping in a democracy” and should be “congratulated for their contribution voluntarily without pay” regardless of what party they belong to.
Act’s David Seymour said he believed the comments reflected those of an “increasingly kind of fringe group with some pretty odd views”.
“I suspect, over time, you will see people in the Māori world turning away from them because that doesn’t represent Māori.”
In Te Pāti Māori’s statement last week, it apologised “for any hurt” Ferris’ post had caused.
“Our movement is, and always has been, for the people. We leave nobody behind. We value and appreciate the contribution that Tangata Tiriti and Tangata Moana make every day in building a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa.
“This has come off the back of a very raw and difficult few weeks, following the loss of our māreikura, Takutai Tarsh Kemp.
“Our team has been in the trenches, feeling the weight of constant attack and pressure, and sometimes that hurt spills over in ways that do not reflect who we are as a kaupapa or leaders.
“We stand strong in our kaupapa, envisioning an Aotearoa Hou that treats everyone as we would on our marae – welcomed, fed, housed, kept safe and loved. Manaakitanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi are the foundations of all our policies.”
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist this year for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.