Summarised by Centrist
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has broken with his own senior Māori MPs by declining to call Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris’ Instagram post racist, despite Willie Jackson and Peeni Henare saying it clearly was.
Ferris’ post during the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election targeted Labour campaigners, declaring: “This blows my mind!! Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā campaigning to take a Māori seat from Māori.” Te Pāti Māori apologised and instructed him to remove it.
Jackson said there was “no doubt about it” the remarks were racist, adding Ferris “shouldn’t talk like that” and was “silly to have done that.” Henare agreed, calling the post racist and praising his diverse volunteer team.
Hipkins, however, refused to apply the label. Pressed repeatedly, he said: “I just don’t think those kind of labels are helpful. It’s language that I strongly disagree with.” The position is at odds with his 2023 campaign pledge to call out racism “wherever I see it” and his past criticism of National for failing to do the same.
Speaking on RNZ, Hipkins said Ferris’ comments had “no place in government,” but would not rule out a coalition with Te Pāti Māori. He argued Labour could still work with them if they “embrace a more inclusive approach.”
Notably, Ferris has since posted another video repeating the comments in direct opposition to his co-leaders’ apology for the original comments. “Straight up e te iwi, this should be unacceptable to us,” Ferris said in a nearly eight-minute-long video. NZ First leader Winston Peters said “Ferris has lost the plot doubling down on his racist comments.”
“Ferris’ arrogance and destructive attitude has now not only placed a firm wedge between Labour and Maori Party, he is also now a clear liability within his own party,” Peters said.
Editor’s note: Labour’s path back to power would almost certainly depend on Te Pāti Māori, making Hipkins’ reluctance to condemn them outright a potential fault line between the two parties.
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Read more over at RNZ and The NZ Herald
