The MP’s refusal to back down and a Treaty ‘bottom line’ could be key factors in whether the two parties can work together next year, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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Lines harden after Ferris video
Tākuta Ferris is refusing to take down his eight-minute late-night video doubling down on last week’s comments about “Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā” backing Peeni Henare, reports Stuff’s Glenn McConnell. By keeping it online, Ferris appears to be defying his co-leaders, and bringing questions about whether Labour could govern with Te Pāti Māori into sharper relief.
Chris Hipkins toughened his stance on Thursday, saying he would confirm pre-election whether Labour could work with TPM and delivering this warning about Ferris’s comments: “If that’s going to be the stance of the Māori Party going forward, that would make them very difficult to work with.” Last night Ferris told McConnell he had nothing to apologise for and that he had the right to make his own call on the issue.
Meanwhile, it emerged last night that Mariameno Kapa-Kingi has been replaced as party whip by co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, a rare arrangement in a caucus of this size.
A fraught media relationship
Another headache for Labour is TPM’s combative approach to media. The party has a record of restricting access, at times allowing only Māori outlets to attend events, shutting out reporters it sees as hostile, and blacklisting mainstream journalists. During the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection, only select media were invited to Oriini Kaipara’s function, with others, including Māori journalists Maiki Sherman and Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira, refused entry, writes Stuff’s Lloyd Burr.
After the vote, Ngarewa-Packer published a social media post alleging “predatory” behaviour by media during the campaign – “reporters pouncing out of bushes, hidden camera ppl” – but offered no evidence for her claims. As Burr put it: “The problem is, they won’t say when it happened, where it happened, who was doing it and which media outlet they worked for.”
TPM’s non-negotiable
While Labour weighs what conduct it can tolerate in any future arrangement, TPM has set a bottom line of its own. In February the party pledged to create a parliamentary commissioner for Te Tiriti o Waitangi, a permanent watchdog to audit bills and advise lawmakers, with the power to issue a “Tiriti veto” where government policy fails to comply with the treaty. Co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said TPM would not support any government that refused to implement the role.
The proposal gives TPM a huge potential win following the next election, but it also narrows the party’s options. The ultimatum could leave the party in a “difficult position for any future coalition negotiations”, noted Glenn McConnell in Stuff.
Does Labour have a Māori talent problem?
Beyond the immediate spat, the weekend’s byelection exposed some serious Labour weaknesses, argues former United Future leader – and former Labour MP – Peter Dunne. The defeat highlighted Labour’s shortage of young, energised Māori candidates who can match Oriini Kaipara’s momentum, he writes in Newsroom, while the party’s byelection strategy signalled entitlement and backward-looking instincts.
The broader risk, Dunne contends, is that Māori voters are migrating to TPM and the Greens while Labour appears stuck in a time warp. His prescription is blunt: “If it wants to regain the level of Māori support it has historically enjoyed, Labour urgently needs to get in step with the optimism and hope now being expressed. It will not achieve this while the old guard represented by Jackson, and to a lesser extent Henare, remain in control.”
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