“Te Pāti Māori continues to show that it’s the only racist political party in Parliament, openly and brazenly engaging in discrimination in a media that refuses to hold them accountable for it”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Yet another example of Te Pāti Māori's racism has emerged, published on a TVNZ spinoff.

“Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Te Pāti Māori’s candidate for Hauraki-Waikato, was interviewed by Re: News about Matariki, and was reported as saying:

‘She says there’s a difference between Māori celebrating the New Year and Pākehā celebrating the New Year. The Pākehā concept is often about getting drunk and releasing fireworks at midnight, whereas the Māori concept is about releasing in a spiritual and healthy healing way.’

“The truth is that people of many backgrounds celebrate New Year in a variety of ways, while people will celebrate Matariki in a variety of ways, too. There are many ways people's behaviour can be categorised, but Maipi-Clarke chose race. It we are truly to ‘give nothing to racism’, then political candidates need to stop with the racial profiling.

“This follows numerous examples of racism from Te Pāti Māori and Rawiri Waititi.

“Te Pāti Māori’s sports policy made the claim that, ‘It is a known fact that Māori genetic makeup is stronger than others.’

“On 14 February, on his Instagram page, Rawiri Waititi said:

‘This day 14 February 1779 Captain Cook was killed in Hawaii. Cook opened Te Moana Nui a Kiwa to the British coloniser, under the assumption that our lands had not been discovered. Let’s not allow the coloniser to continue to distract us from our truth and what really deserves to be celebrated. Valentines Day is only a distraction from the real kaupapa of today. We stand with our Kanaka Maoli of Hawaii.’

‘In a reply to a comment on the post, Waititi went further: 'Happy Cook Cooked day.'

“In April, Waititi opposed the appointment of a chairperson of the Independent Police Conduct Authority because he wasn’t Māori: ‘we believe this appointment represents a missed opportunity from the Government to have appointed a tangata whenua leader to chair the IPCA. And so we will not be supporting this motion.’

“In March 2021, Waititi tweeted: ‘The cau casity [sic] of Caucasian’s [sic] and their ‘active assimilation agenda’. Pay them no attention, their archaic species is becoming more extinct as a new Aotearoa is on the rise. Tangata Whenua + Tangata Tiriti = Aotearoa > Tangata Whenua + Pakeha = Old Zealand.’

“Te Pāti Māori consistently complains about racism in New Zealand, but consistently engages in it.

“It seems to subscribe to the notion that some racial groups are superior or inferior. That idea has been used to justify discrimination and, when taken to its extreme, resulted in some of history’s worst crimes. It’s disgraceful that a parliamentary political party is promoting such a divisive idea.

“Te Pāti Māori is coarsening the tone of race relations in this country, which begs the question when the media will start holding them accountable for it.”

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