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Regional | Debbie Ngarewa-Packer

Racist policies are written by racist people - Te Pāti Māori

Yesterday, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi was ejected from the House by Speaker Trevor Mallard in protest at  National's view of the He Puapua report.

Today, Waititi and fellow leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said they were demanding that racist rhetoric stops

"Yesterday’s ruling still permits racist rhetoric to continue in the House and asserts that we can call a policy or a view racist but not a person when we know racist policies are written by racist people," Waititi says.

“Whilst we acknowledge Parliament is a place for the robust contest of ideas, we draw the line when the leader of the largest opposition party constantly uses commentary like stealth and Māori, apartheid and Māori, separatism and Māori to negatively frame our indigenous rights."

“The Speaker’s ruling continues to uphold the racist rhetoric within the institution of Parliament and serves only to diminish and invalidate the very real experience of racism that tangata whenua experience every day,” Ngarewa-Packer says.

“We have an unapologetic generation of Maori who recognise that being forced to work within the system no longer suits our plight for mana motuhake.

"That is what we are here to do; dismantle the system and create our own," Waititi says.