MPs have ‘internalised’ racism
TE Pāti Māori is attacking the government’s assertion that requiring local councils to poll residents on whether they want Māori wards is democratic.
And one of the party’s MPs has claimed government MPs of Māori descent who supported the Bill have ‘‘internalised’’ racism against their own people.
The government’s Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill passed its third reading on Tuesday. The new law will require councils that introduced Māori wards without polling residents to hold one, or scrap the ones they had set up. Speaking in Parliament, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said ‘‘divisive changes’’ were introduced by the previous government that ‘‘denied’’ communities the ability to determine whether to establish local Māori wards in their communities.
‘‘They took away the voices of local communities across the country and undermined the principles of democracy,’’ he said.
But Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno KapaKingi said it felt like the government only supported democracy when it suited it.
‘‘How come rural boards aren’t being attacked? You see, so it’s democracy when it suits, in our experience and in our view. So that’s absolutely why we as a party absolutely object.’’
The Bill came out of a commitment in the coalition agreements with both Act New Zealand and New Zealand First, both of which have Māori MPs, as does National. Ms KapaKingi said the benefits of having Māori representation in local government were obvious. ‘‘[Māori wards have proven to be] a very good thing across the country . . . It’s worked really, really well. The number of mayors, the number of submissions that came that I sat in on, were overwhelmingly in support of it — overwhelmingly.’’
National MP for Rangitata James Meager supported the Bill in its third reading.
‘‘One of the themes that comes across from the members opposite is that they believe that they have the single dictate, that they have the one true idea in the world on what it is to be Māori, on what it is to count as a Māori and what it is to have your view count as being one that is of Māori world view,’’ he told the House.
‘‘They are the ones that get to decide; they are the ones that, apparently, hold all the cards. If you don’t look like them, if you don’t talk like them, if you don’t walk like them, if you don’t think like them, then you don’t count. ‘‘So here’s a message to the tens of thousands of individuals — of children, of young people, of workers — out there in New Zealand who identify, who whakapapa Māori, who don’t look like them, who don’t think like them, who don’t share their world view and who they think don’t count. Well, those people do count, and we share the view that their individual views count . . . we support people regardless of ethnicity, regardless of race, gender, creed . . .’’
Ms KapaKingi said whakapapa was ‘‘a special and important thing’’, but Mr Meager’s views came from ‘‘an internalised racist view’’, mentioning that his ‘‘boss’’ — presumably Prime Minister Christopher Luxon — was Pākehā . — RNZ