By Corina Shields
3%.
With just 3% of the vote, Te Pāti Māori think they have the mandate to speak for all Māori. And I know from seeing people’s comments on Te Pāti Māori FB page that it wasn’t just Māori who voted for them which means they have even less of a mandate than they think.
To say I’m visually vocal on social media about TPM is an understatement. I’m certainly the most vocal person I know. I have followed them since the height of Covid because of the things that have gone on in this country, so I think I have a pretty good idea of who this party is and what they’re about and they are a far cry from the days of the Māori party of old.
Te Pāti Māori today are full of radical racists who pretend to be about mokopuna Māori but continuously ignore the number of Māori children who are killed by their own whānau.
They tell Māori they’re oppressed and they’re victims, at the same time as flying to France to eat macarons while they look at the Eiffel Tower.
They took money from their “oppressors” to jab Māori, literally. Debbie made a big song and dance about how she was a vaccinator.
Money they got as a result of their party president John Tamihere going to court for the details of unjabbed Māori so they could take advantage of the $120 million Labour made available for Māori organisations like the one’s John heads.
What Te Pāti Māori haven’t done over the last few years is stand up for the innocent mokopuna whose lives were cruelly taken. A far cry from Papa Pita where he didn’t just talk about it but he sent people to work with whanau like the Kahui.
What they didn’t do was promote the use of Rongoa Māori during Covid as a way to boost people’s immunity. Their one and only solution has only always been a choice of Pfizer or Novavax.
What they didn’t do was fight Labour or Hone Harawira when Jacinda Ardern stopped people going to their marae and Hone was blocking roads. What they didn’t do was speak to the Māori who camped outside Parliament during the Wellington protest of 2022.
But it’s interesting how priorities change during an election year. This year we have seen many accusations of racism by TPM, which has been unnecessarily hyped up by MSM who are partly to blame in all of the division we have in this country.
They scream about the removal of Te Reo Māori when the reality is it’s a name swap around which makes sense given the majority of people who deal with these organisations speak English.
They scream their support for Rongoa and oppose its inclusion in the natural therapeutics bill after never promoting it when it should have been.
They scream smoking is the genocide of Māori at the same time as advocating for Palestinian refugees to be brought to this country. A people who have been indoctrinated into violence are in need of saving according to TPM. And yet, given half the chance, these very people would end, not only Māori but the trans community who also want to bring them in.
While I congratulate Hana Maipi-Clarke for winning her seat she is very misguided when she stated “To our mokopuna, they can attack me, but I will not let them attack you” during her maiden speech when talking about government because it is not government she needs to worry about attacking mokopuna, it is the whānau of some of those mokopuna whose lives have been taken and will continue to be taken unless we face the real issue.
While Debbie, Rawiri, Hana and co, have a tangi about the reo and about the removal of section 7aa of the Oranga Tamariki act they remain silent about baby Nga Reo. The 2nd child lost to one woman as a result of domestic violence this year alone. Her own page speaks of what appears to be a miscarriage following DV earlier in the year.
Accountability and self responsibility and the globalisation of Māori are all big problems with Māori.
We are at a point now where Iwi have become the representatives for Māori yet many Māori have issues with their own Iwi and how they’re run and that’s because Māori are so vastly different, even between hāpu. You are not going to get a consensus with so many different view points. You only have to look at whanau trusts to see they have similar issues. It gets to a point where fingers are pointed and nobody is held responsible for the dodgy dealings going on in the background.
And dodgy dealings are something TPM know all about given they and Waipareira have been using charity money to fund John’s election campaigns. This is something that should have been investigated and taken care of before the election if Charity Services did their job right. Gwendoline Keel who chairs Charity Services went on leave to run as a Labour candidate for Port Waikato. But chose not to stand in the by-election and conveniently went back to work for Charity Services after the election. One of my posts on X Twitter in early September notes my scepticism at her running in the election given her return to work date to charity services being October 16th. I’m pleased to hear Winston state Waipareira will be investigated. It’s long overdue.
I’ve said for a long time there is no one way to be Māori so for Te Pāti Māori to act like they represent all Māori is a lie, that is being perpetuated by MSM.
I wrote a piece earlier in the year about the silent majority being overlooked by the loud minority and collectively MSM and TPM have caused major damage and division to this country with their own racist activism and over-exaggerated takes on what government policies actually say.
It is not racist to say organisations like Oranga Tamariki have negative connotations for Māori because people think only Māori beat their children. It is embarrassing for non Māori to automatically assume it’s another Māori child when one is beaten to death. It is embarassing for Māori to be hoping it’s not another Māori child when one is beaten to death.
It is not racist to swap the names around so people know what organisation they are actually dealing with in a country that is predominantly English speaking. Yes Te reo Māori is an official language but as a country we are not at the point where dual language use is widely available and accepted. We are still in a phase of growth.
Do I wish it were different? Absolutely. But I also don’t see forcing anything on those who are opposed to something as being an effective way of making dual language use work.
It seems we have come full circle, where those who claim to be oppressed are now trying to be the oppressors.
Where those who claim to despise colonisation, have used the system they hate, to line their own pockets with putea at the expense of the people they claim they would die for in the house.
Racism in NZ?
Absolutely. And Te Pāti Māori lead the way in perpetuating it.
