Representation and Te Reo.
Battle for the anti-Māori crown and Pākehā allies.
Toku reo toku ohooho, toku reo, toku mapihi maurea
My language is my awakening, my language is the window to my soul
Often attributed to language expert Sir Tīmoti Kāretu.
Picture the scene, a London bar full of drunk antipodeans. I’m there, you can see me beside the girl who is laughing so hard through the clouds of cigarette smoke.
A song comes on the jukebox, a familiar sound of Kiwi summers by the Exponents, and the Kiwis are on their feet singing like it was the national anthem. Then they start pressing noses, sharing a breath in a hongi, laughing with joy.
You think “this isn’t very PC”, which is what “woke” was called at the start of the century. Still, you can see it is coming from a place of love, of affection for each other, but mostly of Kiwis missing home and this act, the pressing together, makes them less homesick by doing something that is important to them, even if in their state they couldn’t explain why.
Some of the other patrons, the Saffas and the Aussies, take the piss, but not the young Kiwis; they look miles away, and they are. Back across the oceans to the people and place they are from, even just for a moment. And yes, it’s probably not very PC, but it is good, and happy Kiwis stumble out into the night.
I kiss the girl on a bridge, and we head onto the tube, headphones playing Dave Dobbyn. Soon we will return to Aotearoa, and unlike the first time I left the UK a few years earlier, I am glad. I’m going home.
Winston whistles to the pack.
Yesterday, Winston Peters announced that his party would campaign on holding a referendum on the Māori seats. To assess whether their time was up, he said with supreme irony.
It was only a matter of time before one of the coalition parties chose the nuclear option and made this move, but it is fitting that Winston, who always wants a referendum, is the one to do so.
ACT doesn’t even want that; they’d go straight to getting rid of the Māori seats, no questions asked. In contrast, the National Party are still trying to balance appealing to racists with not making others feel physically ill at their inauthentic hypocrisy, and currently they’re losing.
It was an opportunity for Christopher Luxon to show some guts after his cowardly, craven support for the Treaty Principles Bill, but he sat firmly on the fence. He would not say whether his party was supportive of or opposed to a referendum, and that the caucus hadn’t discussed it, as if he would listen to them.
If you ignore the racist aspect, it is hard to see why anyone would feel so strongly about getting rid of the Māori seats.
They’re entirely democratic: one person, one vote, and they elect one local MP, with each electorate, both Māori and General, having a similar number of voters. As I’ve written before, the only electorate where voters regularly get two MPs to represent them is Epsom.
Besides, as we all know, with MMP, it’s the party vote that determines the composition of parliament, not the electorates.
I posted:
“Winston wants a referendum on the future of the Māori seats, in a blatant appeal to steal ACT voters, frothing with racism.
Surely any such decision should be for Māori, not initiated by the dying gasp of a miserable old bugger who would throw his own people under the bus for another ride on the roundabout.”
Heather noted, “He didn’t mind Maori seats when NZ First won them all in 1996 and got into government.” The irony is that the Māori seats directly resulted in Winston Peters becoming the Kingmaker.
If you think that’s hypocritical, Peters started his political career by standing unsuccessfully for the National Party in Northern Maori in 1975, losing to Matiu Rata.
Karin wrote, “WTF? National is stealing the Cooker votes, NZF is stealing ACT’s. The coalition could just implode.” So there may be a silver lining.
Darien commented, “I detest this man more every day. These are old tricks to wheel in the disgruntled, I bet we see Māori cossacks dancing in his election adverts.”
It was a mixed message from Peters. On the one hand, he suggested that due to MMP, which Richard Prebble once referred to as More Māori in Parliament, the seats were no longer needed, but at the same time, he was having a bob each way, also calling out the behaviour of the current Te Pāti Māori MPs, saying they didn’t do their jobs.
Winston said, “They hold the majority of the Māori seats and do not turn up to Parliament, disregard the rules and processes and show utter disdain for the system that gives them the very seats they hold – they represent no one.”
To which Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer posted her statistics from 2025:
43 speeches in the House.
21 Oral Questions to Ministers.
372 Written Questions to Ministers.
164 Electorate engagements & events.
I have been frustrated by the ructions within Te Pāti Māori, but I have never doubted for a moment the desire of every one of their MPs to represent the people who elected them. Unlike MPs in a certain other party, who seem to have been elected to represent the interests of the tobacco industry and fossil fuel companies.
The other co-leader of Te Pāti Māori, Rawiri Waititi, said, “If you’re going to put it to a referendum, what it means is that the majority are going to determine, again, the fate of Māori.”
The problem, as is often the case with referenda, is that such a vote would not be decided by people well informed about the democratic and historical considerations; it would not be a referendum on the Māori seats, nor even on Te Pāti Māori, but on Māori themselves.
A referendum on Māori, and it would be ugly, with many making their vote based on prejudice and preconceived ideas, not through due consideration. People are already sharing their views, as in this Stuff survey, which so far has two-thirds of respondents selecting 'Yes’.
Where Te Pāti Māori said the announcement was "race baiting" and "rage baiting", Labour called it a "cheap and cynical" attempt to gain votes.
Kieran McAnulty said Labour's position was that Māori should decide whether to keep the seats or not, and “that position will remain firm.”
The Prime Minister copped out and said, “What we're really focused on is fixing the basics and building the future at the moment.”
On 1 News last night, as above, they ran a story where Winston claimed there was no need for Māori seats because there is good representation these days.
One of the “many” Māori MPs they showed was David Seymour, a man whose ambitions for the culture don’t even extend to using Te Reo to describe lunch.
School Gruel by any other name.
When Labour introduced the schools in lunches programme back in 2020, they named it “Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches”.
A simple enough name, you might think, but this government decided that might be too confusing for people, not school pupils obviously, but elderly white supporters, and so they’ve changed the name.
They didn’t go with “Davey Seymour’s disgusting school dinners”, or “The kids aren’t worth it, let them eat gruel”, no, they went with “Healthy School Lunches”, dropping the simple Te Reo translation that certain people didn’t want our children exposed to.
Even by ACT’s standards, this is petty and pathetic. David Seymour said, “People need to know what things are. That’s why we’re using an English name that everyone understands”.
Come on, David, it’s not that hard, and don’t forget you’re the Associate Education Minister. What does it say if you don’t think children are capable of learning a few words of Te Reo? Mind you, as I said earlier, we all know this isn’t about the kids.
Labour’s education spokesperson Willow Jean-Prime said, “It’s just getting beyond ridiculous,” while Green MP Teanau Tuiono noted, “Te reo Māori is a beautiful language, it’s an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand. Bilingualism is a good thing. Multilingualism is a good thing.”
Perhaps David should watch this Greens message from a few years ago about our role in keeping the first language of our land alive and well. To see it not only maintain the progress made to date, but to thrive.
It begins with Marama’s dad, who I’m sure will be familiar to anyone my age:
Seymour called the change “administrative”, but Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said, “It takes a certain type of narcissist to sit there and trivialise the significance of food in schools, the significance of culture and communities, the significance of te reo Māori... It’s just too important for us to sit quietly and let David dismiss it as administrative.”
I hate to generalise, but in my experience, Māori put great value on people being looked after and fed, no matter how little or how much they have. That, to me, is a lesson that all Kiwis should learn.
Pākehā allies.
As Robert Plant once said, “But I’ve got some good news…”
Not everyone is buying into the divisive, racist rhetoric of Peters or Seymour; some Kiwis are going in the other direction.
Network Waitangi Whangārei member Ngaire Ray told RNZ, “There’s a real movement for people to understand what does Te Tiriti mean for all of us … Te Tiriti is for all people, and if we embrace Te Tiriti, it sets out the path and the future for Aotearoa.”
She continued, "It's really important that my people, that Pākehā people and non-Māori are present in the relationship and understand Te Tiriti, we understand the historical context of where that was signed, what was agreed in Te Tiriti, and what does it mean for us and the future of Aotearoa.”
If you want to read more on that, you can do so here.
All of these attacks on Māori are distractions, initiatives intended to garner votes without any desire to make Aotearoa better. That is the great crime here.
That Māori and like-minded Pākehā have to constantly stand up for Te Tiriti, for a Māori voice at the table, and for Te Reo, when we Kiwis should be asking, in a relatively wealthy country, why so many are struggling?
Why must they eat inferior kai while the best food, the bounty of our land, is reserved increasingly for the wealthy or those overseas? Why are people homeless?
Have a good Friday, folks. Thank you for being the people you are. Knowing there are many others who feel the same way is greatly comforting, although I’d like more.
I’d like to see an Aotearoa where we put this nonsense behind us and get on with the important work that benefits us all.
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
If you enjoy Nick’s Kōrero and can contribute a small weekly koha, it would be very much appreciated. Thanks for your support, which allows me to keep doing this. 🙂
People like David Seymour and Winston Peters won’t win, sure, they’ll attract some voters from people who really ought to know better, but this next video is what the future of Aotearoa looks like, not the inferior place they had in mind.
To end today, here is Tōku Reo Tōku Ohooho by Wellington East Girls College.
Probably like most families, I've got a bunch of 'born to rule torys' in mine.
They just can't seem to stand anybody else having, what they deem to be an advantage over them.
I ask them, "How does this personally affect you, either financially, materially or emotionally". Haven't had a sane answer yet.
Referendums are the tyranny of the majority. They are not democratic. We see that on several councils where the Māori seats were voted out. Gone. No voice.