The co-leaders of the Maori Party and Greens co-leader Marama Davidson have shown us all that the real racists we see are actually members of parliament:
Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi was kicked out of the House after protesting the National Party’s rhetoric on race issues with a haka.
Waititi, in a fiery interjection during Question Time on Wednesday, said National Party leader Judith Collins was pushing “racist propaganda and rhetoric towards tangata whenua” and bringing the House into disrepute.
The National Party has in the past two weeks launched an attack on the Labour Government over a claimed “separatist agenda”, targeting the Government’s proposed Maori Health Authority among other policies which aim to fulfill partnership responsibilities in the Treaty of Waitangi.
Collins pursued the matter again on Wednesday afternoon. Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, in an interjectory question, asked for the prime minister’s view on whether Collins’ “continued attack on Maori was racist”.
Speaker Trevor Mallard ruled out the question as it was not within the prime minister’s areas of responsibility.
After Jacinda Ardern answered a further question from Collins, Waititi stood up to seek “advice” from the Speaker.
“Over the past two weeks there has been racist propaganda and rhetoric towards tangata whenua, that is not only insulting to tangata whenua, but diminishes the mana of this House,” Waititi said.
Mallard said that though some views could cause discomfort, it was his responsibility to let a “broad range” of views be aired in the House.
Stuff
So, it appears that the Maori Party’s position is: none other than Maori are allowed to speak about Maori, especially white women. He clearly thinks he is still on the marae where Maori treat women as second class citizens. Unfortunately for him, we live in a democracy, for now, that enables all to have an equal say.
His petulance, arrogance and rudeness is bad enough, but he is also racist. Prancing and dancing around in the House is just pathetic:
People like Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer aren’t fostering good race relations. They are reinforcing racism with their own bigoted actions.
Waititi claims that only indigenous people are allowed any rights. Maori are not indigenous, it’s a simple clear fact, not only not indigenous, but by virtue of their own oral stories, not even the first here; so by Waititi’s own statement, Maori have no rights whatsoever in this country.
Having watched the point of order raised by Marama Davidson and the replies, I have come to the conclusion that Maori as the ‘indigenous’ people, see themselves as the only ones allowed to discuss policy to do with Maori. The rest of us have to shut up.
Never before have I felt so depressed over the direction this country is going. We were warned about this back in the late 60s – that this was going to happen – and here we are today with Maori doing a haka in parliament as if they owned it.
I’d say from all the flak that Judith Collins is attracting that it appears she is over the target.
Good luck in having any proper dialogue with Maori when their representatives carry on as they are currently.
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