Cracks form in Te Pāti Māori, just as the Opposition gains the upper hand
At a time when you’d expect Te Pāti Māori to be soaring, it has fallen into internal crisis.
The party held itself together following the tragic death of Tāmaki Makaurau MP Takutai Kemp earlier this year. It then delivered a blistering performance to keep the seat of Tāmaki Makaurau, with Oriini Kaipara beating Labour’s Peeni Henare by about two votes to one.
For triumphing during adversity, Te Pāti Māori should be proud. They deserved to hold their heads high, and take time to recalibrate. Instead, they chose to do the exact opposite.
As the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election campaign drew to a close, the wheels started to fall off.
Glenn McConnell at Stuff, does an excellent job of highlighting the cray cray timetable of how the Māori Party managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Rather than celebrate Oriini’s incredible win in the by-election, they have been scrambling to contain the damage of Doc’s sectarian migrants slam followed by his bewildering double down and triple down that was a slap in the face of his own leadership!
Here’s what I think happened.
If you talk to Labour and Māori Party insiders, they all thought Labour would win with a small majority, so Doc’s comments made before the result was even known was the bitterness of someone who thought they had lost.
The defensiveness put up against unapproved media from talking to Oriini was part of this bitterness, and because Doc received so much love for his Māori only perspective from the kids in his DMs, he doubled down for his late night rant claiming it wasn’t his words you should feel angry at, but the English language which was ludicrous.
His intellectual certainty and purity tests reek of the middle class identity politics clique who made 2026-2020 so unbearable.
Pure temple politics kills and only hands political ammunition to our enemies.
Class and solidarity is the only way we beat this hard right Government.
Look.
I’m not going to try and decipher the latest comments by JT comparing migrant and pakeha volunteers helping Labour in the recent by-election to African Slavery, British rule of India or the Opium Wars because quite frankly I simply don’t understand the comparison any more than I understand Doc claiming we can’t take offence at his comments because it is the English language that is racist.
What I do want to focus on however is the importance of JT and the Māori Party to any change of Government.
Push past the comments and there are 4 very simple facts.
1 – JT is one of the best negotiators in the game and he is essential to ensuring Labour’s incrementalism isn’t what we need up with and he will be necessary in helping the Greens get the best deal possible as well.
2 – The Māori Party economic policy is as close to socialism we are ever going to get with taxes placed upon the rich and removed from the poor. They have an entire raft of taxes aimed at speculators that will tax them while providing the money we all need for our public services and infrastructure.
3 – Look at all the polling and Labour + Greens + MP = 51%
4 – NZF + Labour (with the Greens held hostage) is not worth fighting for.
This anti-Treaty, anti-Māori, anti-disabled, anti-renter, anti-beneficiary and anti-environment Government have strangled off the common good for their donors interests and I will gladly drink a glass of of Green Party woke and Māori Party sectarianism to ensure Labour Party incrementalism doesn’t end up being all we can hope for.
The Māori Party are too important to our collective hope for real change to write off.
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Oh please Martyn, come on! You’re just trying to do a rescue job for your mates. One can’t push past the comments because what was said was said, but if one could, only one simple fact remains: TPM is unelectable. And their leadership under JT is to blame for that. End of story. Compare this TPM to the original under Turia…mate, the original was a respectable movement, but this version is a very unappealing trainwreck.
Turia and sharples went with John key because she had fallen out with Helen Clarke crossed the floor never went back and never spoke again.
What looks unappealing to you looks sensible to normal people, that tin hat you wear must be distorting your vision.
If Takuta Ferris can’t see that his mad utterances are essentially handing Seymour and friends great, bloody gobbets of red meat to toss to their frothing redneck base, then he’s just thick. ACT must be laughing themselves sick over this. “See?! We told you those Maaaris were a bunch of unhinged racists who want to steal your silverware and ban you from going to the beach!”
The guy’s basically punching himself in the face at this point. I hope Te Pati Maori can get him to see that throwing his toys out of the pram like this is helping no one but their enemies.
John Tamihere said ““It is wrong for other folk to politic in Māori seats because I don’t go over to their country, like the British Raj and destroy India. I don’t rage the Opium War as the British did with the Chinese. I don’t place all people from Africa into slavery like white Europe did.”
I can throw some light on that statement by paraphrasing. “Maori did not colonize India. Maori did not try to force opium upon the Chinese people. Maori did not enslave the peoples of Africa. The British did all that. Therefore, people from those nations should not allow themselves to be used by colonialists to intrude into Maori political affairs. They should respect Maori independence and dignity in the same way that Maori have respected the independence and dignity of Chinese, Indian and African peoples”.
I don’t totally agree with John’s position, but to me the argument above is irrefutable. I would just go a step further than John and say that the only people who should have been actively engaged in the Tamaki makarau by-election were the people of Tamaki makaurau electorate themselves. Not many people would agree with me on that, but in the future Aotearoa it will be recognised as a basic political principle. The perverse phenomenon of foreign or outside interference will be completely eliminated from the political system under rangatiratanga.
So all those ethnicities should have marched with Maori in the treaties principles bill protest, all those dam pakeha shouldn’t have written submissions and should have spoken at parliament
In Aotearoa there should be respect and solidarity between all iwi, all peoples and all ethnicities. That means we don’t interfere in the domestic affairs of other iwi, but we do come together to make common cause when we are facing threats from the colonialist regime. So I can confidently confirm that people from every ethnic group residing in New Zealand joined in Te Hikoi mo te Tiriti. That shows the strength of our solidarity. The blow up over the Tamaki makaurau by-election was the result of a political error by the Labour Party. It was wrong of the NZLP to push multiculturalism into a by-election for a Maori seat. Everyone has learned something from the consequent raruraru and it won’t have a negative impact on race relations in this country over the long term. It might even have positive outcomes as Te Pati Maori have suggested.
Let’s have a look at what Takuta Ferris said in his second public statement, the so-called “doubling down” statement.
“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”
I think Takuta is right. He would know. If he had made the statement in te reo it would have come across differently. Why? Because speaking in te reo is not just a case of translating word for word from English. When one speaks English one speaks with the whole weight of English culture shaping the discourse. One thinks one is speaking one’s own thoughts, and of course in a sense one is, but in another sense one is articulating the ideas common to an entire culture. Te reo is informed by a different cultural understanding, and Maori speaking in te reo are more likely to tend towards the magnanimity of manaakitanga, not necessarily because they become any kinder, but because the language gives a confidence of their position in the system of things, and they are more aware of how their tipuna would receive their thoughts, even when they may not be overly confident in the language itself.
“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.”
Ferris said ““They’re doing it in plain daylight. This is why I say it blows my mind. They’re homogenising Māori.”
This idea of homogenisation is vitally important. It has been debated more sympathetically and at greater length on e-tangata https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/two-takes-on-takuta/ but to be brief: It is questionable whether any ethnic minority wants to be homogenised, and it is a red line for Maori within their own country, Aotearoa. When “multiculturalism” becomes “Maori are just an ethnic minority in New Zealand like Brazilians or Sri Lankans or Iraqi” then Maori will not have a bar of it, because it really would amount to an erasure of Maori. Maori will keep their unique identity as first people of Aotearoa, just as all those other ethnicities will keep their unique identity as people that migrated to Aotearoa for all sorts of reasons bringing with them all sorts of cultural practices and values.
The position of Maori is unique in Aotearoa. No one can deny that. It is a matter of fact, not of belief.
There is more to be said on the subject of homogenisation, but I suggest that anyone interested goes to e-tangata and joins the discussion there.
well put GF
A long answer but it won’t solve the reality that his comments provide ammunition to the right to use as scare tactics. I prefer the advice to “speak the truth in love” as a common-sense way to avoid major conflict. It’s pretty much impossible to keep all people happy but it is daft to deliberately inflame situations that can cause you harm.
There’s an old saying in politics: “If you’re explaining, you’re losing”.
Whether Ferris was right or wrong, the damage is done. Naive politics doesn’t win elections.
The only hope now is that any disaffected non-Maori voters find a new home somewhere else in the Opposition.
The polls will be interesting to see if this has had any significant effect on vote distribution.
Yes, TMP need to get on board the MMP train with the Greens and Labour and learn the appropriate PR skills to make it work. The last thing we need is division that will be exploited to create fear among the uninformed electorate that allows the current disaster of a government to get in again.
“The Māori Party economic policy is as close to socialism we are ever going to get.” If TPM get to wag the tail of the dog, would not your most preferred coalition be described as the most far left government ever in NZ?
My sour feeling is oh no another entitled Maori in a position of responsibility to their Party and its aims which are not simply one person’s viewpoint, but this Doc person opening his trap and being provocative and hostile willing to throw out any good achieved by workers within the political system. English is bad huh, it’s as malleable as Maori; it is you Doc who chooses the racist word and meaning. Race itself is good, to know where you are from. looking different, thinking different – it’s all part of the human kaleidoscope we live in. Fascinating getting to know each other and forget about the boofheads.
But like Marama Davidson getting to be a woman, Maori leader. in the Greens and fussing about ‘language’ again. Some rude, common, male language which is eternal, and minor compared to our obstacles in this century. Then too, not forgetting Erica Standup wanting to make those short Maori words that add Kiwiness to our converse, diverse, discourse.
Can’t Maori pollies govern themselves towards getting the whole waka moving? All you smart Maori in power, just be aware of the hard work all the other smart Maori in the background, quietly creating a NZAO good enough for furthering good lives in the future which presents climate difficulties plus warmongers fighting for technical advantages not people’s betterment. Don’t let us end up like that but let’s get young people together and out living, empty all the jails and the universities because they just teach people how to be self-centred materialists and isolationists, to fit into the present unfair system.
JT knows if they got into any sort of power they would soon lose support like happened before when the TPM went with Key.
They love the drama and the salary they get .
Yes agree, a very generous income with no responsibility if you stay out of government and remain on the sideline.
Agree 100%. Ferris has outed himself as a middle class wonking prig who is beginning to look like he cares more about his own er fragile sense of Māori identity that he is prepared to throw the baby out with the bath water. He protests too much and he is trying too hard …. to be a ‘radical’ Māori even tho he looks like a whitey from here up north, with a big dose of born again thrown in. Just another inauthentic fanatic that needs to be told what’s what by the leadership. But he doesn’t seem to be being disciplined into line. The next election is really important so I hope they get their shit together and shut him the fuck up. As for JT he should know better, what the hell is going on in their little mutual echo chamber. Look, NZ is relying on a working coalition between TPM who have great tax policy, the Greens and Labour if Chippy and the likes of Ferris can have the vision to allow it. Unfortunately, it’s doubtful. Egos. Middle class (mostly)white men. Axes to grind.
DOC should have been celebrating all of the other different races being involved in helping out at the election .If he was not so for up himself he too might have been able to engage some of those same people to help out .This is the problem with the current NZ we have forgotten to work together as a nation instead everyone is in silos and hating everyone else .
Vote Labour and get TPM’s ethno-nationalism at the cabinet table.
The ACT and NZF campaign adverts will be easy to write.
Vote National and get ACTs ethno-nationalism at the cabinet table.
The Labour and Greens campaign adverts will be easy to write.
I agree I quite like Ferris but as you say JT is the trouble maker here, unfortunately he can’t help himself .if they carry on we will be saddled with this awful government for the next 3 years . Just imagine that yuk yuk yuk
In real life if Ferris had a Kiwi Indian or Chinese mate who offered to help him campaign for parliament would he turn down his mates help?