Tākuta Ferris has posted again on social media about Labour. Photo / Tākuta Ferris, Instagram
Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris has doubled down on social media comments he made last week which led to “racist” allegations and an apology from his party.
In a new Instagram video, Ferris said it is “unacceptable” for people of other ethnicities to campaign to “take a Māori seat from the Māori people” and accused Labour of “erasing Māori”.
Te Pāti Māori didn’t provide any immediate comment on the new post, other than to say: “We’ll address this in due course.”
Labour’s Chris Hipkins has responded with condemnation of Ferris.
“I absolutely condemn the post and the views in it. It does not reflect Labour’s or New Zealanders’ values,” he told the Herald.
“I’ve spoken to the leadership of TPM, who have apologised again, and have been assured this does not reflect the views of Te Pāti Māori either.”
NZ First leader Winston Peters has also commented on Ferris’ latest remarks, saying the MP had “lost the plot” and was a “clear liability within his own party”.
Ferris last week 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 – though Hipkins refused to use that label – while Te Pāti Māori itself said it “does not condone the language”.
The party instructed Ferris to remove the post, which it apologised for.
Overnight, Ferris posted again on Instagram to address what he called “all the drama that was fluffed up recently in the media about a social media post I made”. He acknowledged the post had been called “racist”.
He explained the image of the Labour campaigners and his reaction.
“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?”
Labour’s candidate in the byelection, Henare, is one of Parliament’s most senior Māori MPs. Should he have won the byelection, Labour would have brought Georgie Dansey (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) into Parliament off the list.
Ferris said his comments had been “completely twisted”.
“But the Māori seats are for Māori voices only. They’re for the Māori people to decide.”
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 “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.”
He said the post was “erasing Māori”.
“We’ve got to learn to be able to spot these things and call them out.”
Ferris also didn’t believe anyone would have had a problem with his comments had he made them in te reo Māori. He said the English language had been an “oppressor” of other ethnicities.
“They’re trying to make us vanish. They’re trying to make us disappear into just a small minority in our own country, whilst we fight for the damn seats that are there for us, expressly for us, and they’re there for us because the Pākehā at the time, and currently, know that Māori have unique rights as opposed to everyone else.”
Peters, who has often sparred with Ferris in the House, said on X on Wednesday morning that the MP 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.”
In Te Pati 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.”
Asked on Tuesday morning whether he believed Ferris’ post was racist, Hipkins said it was “a very unhelpful post” and Labour “strongly opposed the sentiment in it”.
“Labour wants to run an inclusive election campaign.
“I think Peeni and the language he used in the byelection campaign represented us incredibly well. He was very inclusive in his byelection campaign.
“That’s the type of general election campaign that Labour will run.”
Hipkins did not explicitly call the post racist, saying: “I just don’t think those kinds of labels are helpful.”
Henare said he believed it was racist and wouldn’t comment on why Hipkins refused to use that term.
“We have an amazing volunteer base. They come in all shapes and sizes and they give to a kaupapa. They were awesome for us. We were clear that we had to be inclusive.”
Jackson said there was “no doubt about it” that Ferris’ post was racist.
“I said it was racist the other day.
“I don’t resile from what I said the other day. I’ve apologised to some of those community. [Ferris] shouldn’t talk like that. He is silly to have done that. Good on Te Pāti Māori for apologising.”
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.