Dear Editor
Seeing Debbie Ngarewa-Packer of Te Pati Maori claim, across various news channels, that “We have a government that has insulted and upset at least 20 per cent of the population…” and her party has a “large mandate of Maori” to speak on their behalf against the new Government, it seems she has already forgotten that they achieved only 3.08% of the votes cast in September.
Additionally, even if all of the Te Pati Maori votes came from Maori, which as Shane Jones points out is unlikely, that’s still only 87,364 votes out of a Maori voting age population numbering well over half a million people.
Finally we saw, even with many non-Maori at the protest rallies (against what exactly, who knows?), across New Zealand attendees totalled a few thousand at most. That is orders of magnitude less than the “20 per cent of the population” who are supposedly upset by the government.
Add those facts together and, no matter how much Ngarewa-Packer might delude herself, you have proof positive that Te Pati Maori does not speak for the great majority of Maori in New Zealand.
Disgruntled of Eskdale
