Summarised by Centrist
Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere has likened the coalition government to “Nazi Germany” and called it a “fascist regime that has to be removed” during an appearance on Martyn Bradbury’s podcast.
He accused the government of a “bully-boy mentality” and stated that dissenting academics were being “beat up.”
Tamihere’s remarks drew swift condemnation from the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand, which called the comparison “unhelpful at best and harmful at worst.” Historian Giacomo Lichtner warned that repeated Nazi analogies risk diluting real warnings about extremism: “If we were ever faced with a regime that actually was fascist, the call to alert would fall on deaf ears.”
In the same podcast, Tamihere turned on National’s Māori Development Minister, Tama Potaka, saying he was “a disgrace to our Māori race” for supporting the government’s housing policies. While accusing the government of racism, Tamihere engaged in race-shaming himself, an irony not lost on critics.
Tamihere also called Judith Collins “ugly,” while confirming he would stand against Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni in the Kelston electorate in 2026.
The episode echoes an earlier controversy in which Winston Peters made remarks about co-governance and Nazi racial theory.
Read more over at The NZ Herald
Image: Jared Enos
