Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris has posted an eight-minute video defending his comments and saying Labour was “homogenising Māori”.
Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
All three opposition parties seem to be condemning Tākuta Ferris’ decision to double down on his comments about “Indians, Asians, Black and Pakeha” campaigning for Peeni Henare.
But Te Pāti Māori – whose MP made the posts – has not fronted to media about the matter.
Henare lost the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election over the weekend, winning about 3000 votes compared to the more than 6000 for Te Pāti Māori’s Oriini Kaipara.
Ferris posted on social media during the final days of the campaign, saying it “blows my mind!! Indians, Asians, Black and Pakeha campaigning to take a Maori seat from Maori”.
Te Pāti Māori soon apologised and said Ferris had been instructed to remove the post. On Tuesday night however, he returned to social media with an eight-minute video defending his comments and saying Labour was “homogenising Māori”.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said “I absolutely condemn” Ferris’ comments. Asked if it was racist, he said they were now “getting well into that territory”.
“Those comments should absolutely be condemned. They will create division, they will create I think real resentment from a lot of New Zealanders. Is Tākuta Ferris saying that all those New Zealanders with Toitū te Tiriti stickers on their cars and litter boxes need to take them away, unless they’re Māori?
“I just think that’s not the New Zealand way. It is also not the spirit that some of us have been working very hard over the last couple of years to try and generate.”
Hipkins said Te Pāti Māori’s leaders had again apologised for 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 apologized for Tākuta Ferris’ comments and said very clearly that does not represent what the Māori Party believes.”
He said he had spoken to co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who was “also very concerned about this … and I totally accept her and her word on that”.
However, that concern was not passed on to media.
RNZ had approached Te Pāti Māori and Ferris on Tuesday morning. The only comment came from the party, saying they would respond “in due course”.
Whether an apology was good enough was a matter for Te Pāti Māori to handle, Hipkins said, but if it had been one of his MPs “there would be disciplinary procedures”.
Labour’s Willie Jackson, who ran Henare’s by-election campaign, said Ferris should realise the other ethnicities he has criticised on social media are supporting Māori.
Jackson said the comments were racist, unhelpful for race relations, and divisive.
“Look, we’re sorry we were unable to bring the seat home, but we were privileged to have them on board. It’s great having different groups – Indian groups, Sri Lankans, Pasifika, they’re all in there supporting Māori.
“Doc (a nickname for Ferris) seems to think that it’s like a takeover, that’s what he’s saying. It’s no takeover. It’s just supporting a Māori seat just like Māori go and support mainstream seats… I’ve supported many people, Pākehā colleagues, Pasifika colleagues, in their general seats – I’m sure some of those Te Pāti Maori MPs have too.”
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said the comments were “harmful to those communities and to our kaupapa of kotahitanga”.
She said she wanted to acknowledge the diverse communities who were working hard to support tangata whenua and were now campaigning to support Māori wards.
“I know that he is trying to talk about the taonga that are Māori electorates, I understand that, but the way that it has been spoken has landed on communities that we care about in a harmful way.”
Like Hipkins, she said Te Pāti Māori had apologised and any disciplinary action was a matter for them.
“If it was my MP I would be very clear that this is not something that the Greens uphold and stand for.”
Coalition parties decry ‘racist’ and ‘unacceptable’ comments
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon – speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Honiara – said Ferris’ comments were racist and unacceptable.
“The comments are racist. I think the rhetoric, as I’ve constantly called upon by all political leaders to think before they put their mouth into gear, there’s a moment between stimulus and response, is to think about what you may say, and then I think to call it out – it’s unacceptable.”
Luxon said he generally had tried to lay out a culture of standards in National, but did not say whether that would mean an MP of his making such comments would lose their job.
“Well again, hypothetical, but I just would say to you I’ve been pretty clear on standards and I think if Chris Hipkins wants to work with Te Pāti Māori, I mean he’s going to need to call out that standard as well.”
National’s Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka said the comments were not okay.
“It doesn’t align with the tikanga that I have for myself and certainly doesn’t align with the tikanga of the people that I was brought up with. I think that those comments are pretty prejudicial, discriminatory, and unreasonable – particularly of an elected member.
“He has his own views and sometimes they carve from a very dark and dank place.”
National frontbencher Chris Bishop said the comments were disgraceful.
“We’re a melting pot in this country, we’re a multicultural society built on bicultural foundations but people have a right to participate in the electoral process regardless of their ethnic, religious or cultural background. He doesn’t get to decide who gets to participate in the Māori seat electoral process. He doesn’t.
“I just think it’s an appalling attitude, frankly, that he’s displaying, and doesn’t seem to have any desire to apologise or even backtrack on what he said, but I just think it’s sad, I really do. I think it’s sad that an MP would hold that sort of attitude towards towards fellow New Zealanders.”
ACT leader and Acting Prime Minister David Seymour said Te Pāti Māori was “no longer the Māori Party”.
“They don’t represent Māori, they’re increasingly a kind of fringe group with some pretty odd views. And I suspect over time you will see people in the Māori world turning away from them, because that doesn’t represent Māori.”
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has verbally clashed with Ferris repeatedly in the House before, and said the comments were totally inappropriate.
He agreed the comments were racist.
“Terribly racist, it’s disgraceful. You’ve got all those people who are out there helping with democracy… regardless of which party they’re working for, are to be congratulated for their contribution voluntarily without pay and here he makes that stupid, racist statement.”
New Zealand First Minister Shane Jones said it showed Ferris’ presence in Parliament “is very limited”.
“He’s not going to be here very long, I think it just shows a scatter-brained approach to being a parliamentarian.”
Asked about Ferris’ comments about the message not causing offence in reo Māori, Jones – known as a fluent reo Māori speaker – suggested it was desperation.
“People say desperate things in order to remain relevant and to capture attention. No one cares what Tākuta thinks or says – that’s why he’s endeavouring to boost his relevance by saying pretty extreme things.”
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