Summarised by Centrist
Broadcaster Michael Laws has accused Te Pāti Māori of moral cowardice and political negligence following the alleged murder of three-year-old Catalya Remana Tangimetua Pepene.
On The Platform, Laws challenged the party’s co-leaders – Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi – for their silence: “Colonialism didn’t murder this child. A 45-year-old Māori man did.”
“Where are you?” he asked repeatedly, directing his comments at Māori leaders and activists who often mobilise around colonial grievances but remain, in his view, “complicitly silent” on Māori child abuse. “You’re not silent when the Crown’s involved. You’re not silent when police are involved. But when it’s your own? Nothing.”
Laws said the data is irrefutable: Māori children are disproportionately represented in child abuse and homicide statistics, and much of the violence occurs within Māori households. Yet Te Pāti Māori – whose platform centres on tino rangatiratanga and systemic reform – offers no serious plan to address what he called “our greatest scandal.”
“I wouldn’t just hold Te Pāti Māori solely responsible – although they’re meant to be. This is their job. But there are a whole series of other white liberals and brown liberals who’ve walked away from this, including the mainstream media, who’ve walked away from this issue for decades because it doesn’t fit the narrative,” he said.
