Te Pāti Māori wouldn't condemn the comments.
Video / NZ Herald
THE FACTS
Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris is under fire for a social media post taking issue with the ethnicity of Labour supporters campaigning for the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection.
The party apologised for the post and “any hurt it has caused”.
Labour’s Willie Jackson labelled the post “nonsense” and “racist”.
Te Pāti Māori actually believes it will be included in a left-wing government.
The party is obviously deluded, especially if its members think they’re going to be sitting around the Cabinet table.
Centre voters are light years away from being comfortable with that level of extreme left-wing radicalismhelping to run the country.
But it would seem Te Pāti Māori don’t realise that. And that’s why they broke a years-long policy of hardly ever being sorry for anything they say, and issued an apology for MP Tākuta Ferris’ social media posts. In my view, Ferris’ post was migrant-directed racism.
One of Tākuta Ferris' social media post on Instagram.
The apology was a surprise. Te Pāti Māori had only ever said sorry for comments once, for a Rawiri Waititi tweet celebrating the extinction of caucasians. But otherwise, the party stands by its offensive comments.
Not sorry for joking about poisoning David Seymour. Not sorry for labelling Tauranga a white supremacist “hotspot”. Not sorry for claiming superior Māori genetics. Not sorry for accusing the Government of deliberate systemic genocide. Not sorry for posting sinister pictures of guns online.
The sudden switch to a policy of appeasement seems to have surprised Ferris, too, which is why he doubled down and then tripled down and still refuses to remove the eight-minute midnight rant from his social media.
Word is there are real rifts in the party and Ferris isn’t the only one unhappy.
But the bad news for Te Pāti Māori is that at almost the exact time it appears to have realised it needs to tone down its racism if it wants a chance at government next year, Labour seems to have finally accepted the opposite. Which is that Labour can never bring Te Pāti Māori with it if Labour wants a chance at government next year.
After years of ignoring and making excuses for the Māori Party’s antics, Labour has started calling it out.
Labour MP Willie Jackson. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Labour’s resident uncle Willie Jackson labelled Ferris’ comments racist.
Then, when Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi would only speak te reo Māori to journalists questioning him about Ferris, Labour Party MP Shanan Halbert accused him of trying to create an “exclusive bunch of Māoris”, adding a stray “s” you’re more likely to hear in a rural South Island pub than coming from a Auckland Māori MP’s mouth.
And then – in further proof Labour is toning down its own race relations radicalism – when actress Keisha Castle-Hughes called for automatic citizenship for anyone with Māori whakapapa born abroad, Hipkins immediately shot it down. In the Ardern days of co-governance and separate Māori authorities, special citizenship rights wouldn’t have sounded crazy.
Labour should’ve changed tack long ago. It was always foolish for the party to have thought it could out-Māori Te Pāti Māori. If it takes radicalism to win the Māori electorate seats, Labour is better off abandoning those seats to Te Pāti Māori. Upping Labour’s radicalism would only drag it further to the left instead of where the party should be: in the centre duking it out with National.
That is the only place Labour has a chance of winning enough voters to win government again.
The next step for Labour is to completely rule out working with Te Pāti Māori in government. It may have to do that to be in serious contention for 2026. It’s possible Labour is waiting for a couple of things.
Waiting for the polls, to see if it has enough support to win without Te Pāti Māori’s numbers. And waiting to see if Te Pāti Māori can sustain toning down the outrage to become more likeable to centre voters.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi during his media stand-up on the tiles, all in te reo Māori. Photo / Mark Mitchell
That second question’s already been answered. No. Te Pāti Māori co-leaders can apologise all they like but if they can’t discipline their MPs and bring them to heel, ongoing outrage is a guarantee. Which means Te Pāti Māori will not be in government.
