New Independent MP - and former Green MP - Elizabeth Kerekere. Photo / File
New Independent MP - and former Green MP - Elizabeth Kerekere. Photo / File
Former Green list MP Elizabeth Kerekere has broken her silence in a candid interview with Te Ao Māori News, the first time since re-entering Parliament as an independent.
Kerekere said she was astounded at the way the Green Party investigated allegations of bullying made against her, and believed the party has a racism problem.
Speaking in her new office on the far side of Parliament, already decorated with her trademark purple, Kerekere said: “We have the mana we are born with and the mana we accrue and I know that I have done the work.
“Nearly every Maori who has reached out to me has told me to stand in my own mana.”
On Tuesday, Kerekere returned to the debating chamber as an independent. Despite the brave face, she was hurt by persistent allegations fed to the media that she was a bully.
Kerekere’s also battling claims she’s quick to accuse colleagues of racism when things don’t go her way. But she said there was some truth in it because her voice was suppressed within the party because of her promotion of Māori and rainbow issues.
“There is definitely a racism problem in the Greens. All of the work I have done around helping restructure the party and focus on how we give light to the Treaty – I think a lot of our supporters are going to be disappointed.”
Last Friday, Kerekere had a Zoom meeting with the wider membership of the Green Party to front up on the allegations made against her. The investigation had entered its fifth week but she says she was only given one chance to defend herself.
“A smear campaign has been going on about me for the past several weeks and I wanted to explain to our membership to hold myself accountable, what I had done and what I was doing.”
“I was No 4 on the list. I thought I would still be there. I thought that if we got into a coalition I might have got a ministerial [post] but I’ve lost all of that.”
Instead, she resigned from the party but will continue as an MP until the general election, saying no longer censured by the Greens, her voice will be heard.
New Māori Party member Meka Whaitiri has said she can work with her East Coast relation. But Kerekere is not entertaining thoughts of joining the Māori Party yet.
“I happened to bump into John Tamihere today and no official invitation has been made to me.
“I’m not sure if I should be offended by that,” she quipped.
Green Party leadership Marama Davidson and James Shaw. Photo / Alex Burton
Greens respond
Later Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson was asked to comment on Kerekere’s comments: “Firstly, from one Māori woman to another, I send love and acknowledge her. I say this no matter what, all the time from her staunch stand for the initiatives by the Green Party to her hard work for the LGBTQ community, and all those attributes of Dr. Elizabeth Kerekere.”
Davidson said Māori already knew that Parliament House and the political world was not set up for them or for Māori politics. “It’s not for Māori women.”
But the main goal for the Green Party was to acknowledge Te Tiriti and to support work that acknowledged Te Tiriti.
“My thoughts go back to the times when I stood proud as a Māori woman, as a leader for Māori women, and as a woman who is heavily connected with the aspirations of Māoridom. In those times, The Green Party stood in full support for me.”
Davidson herself fell foul of the Speaker in Parliament for heckling ACT MP Nicole McKee.
She told Te Ao Māori News she had spoken out because she was angry at Act’s questions.
“I called out to Act while they were asking their questions. They were racist and useless questions and that’s what I was saying. That is the reason why I was kicked out by the Speaker.”
She acknowledged that the Speaker had been correct.
