Maori after Brash: The politics of race

Parliament's Maori MPs talked to Herald reporters about the response to the Don Brash speech and the reaction it provoked.

Dover Samuels, Labour, Tai Tokerau

"In my political life, in both local and central government, this is the first time I have really felt afraid for our nation.

"People always believed we were a bicultural nation. We have become multicultural. The time will come when, perhaps, we just have brown-skinned New Zealanders.

"We must look at things in context. Maori and Pakeha fought side by side at Gallipoli and World World II. I grew up on the stories of how they picked each other up, of their love for this country.

"Fast-forward it to what is happening now in this country and it's pretty difficult to reconcile. When you're in desperation in politics, you'll do anything to attain power. It's easy to focus on the vulnerable. But the perceptions the hysteria is based on are illusionary."

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Moana Mackey, Labour, list

"We already base our policies on need, not race. So it is quite surreal to have someone stand up and accuse you of not doing something you are already doing. It is quite hard to counter that. It is all poll-driven, political game-playing really.

"We are focused on getting facts out there. Every individual might have different rights from someone else but Maori as a people don't have special rights that make them more privileged than any other New Zealander.

"The thing that always makes me proud to be a New Zealander is that no matter where I go in the world and you get a bunch of Kiwis together, the guys just rip their shirts off and do a haka. That belongs to all of us, Maori and Pakeha alike, and it shows how far we have come together. And we'll get past this because we have a shared heritage and a shared culture.

"We are a lot further down to path towards very happy race relations than we think we are. We are too hard on ourselves sometimes."

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Metiria Turei, Green Party, list

"What the polls and what Brash's poor analysis doesn't take into account is that everybody is attached to everybody else in this country.

"Every family has Maori grandchildren, every family has Pakeha grandchildren. There isn't that separation of us and them that the politicians make out.

"There isn't an us and them. It is an artifice created for political purposes. Maori are being used as a scapegoat.

"What is actually being asked for is more control over our general environment, more control over our economic environment, more control over our ability to get jobs, more control over education."

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Pita Paraone, New Zealand First, list

"If you play that race card, it's almost like taking the lid off the pot which is already simmering.

"Until there is a clear understanding of the utterances that came out of the Orewa speech ... then this path that seems to have been taken is going to lead our country in a direction I don't think we are going to like.

"The true issue is the obligations that were entered into in 1840. My belief is the treaty just confirms the position of Maori in New Zealand and does not confirm extra rights."

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Donna Awatere Huata, independent, list

"The feedback I have been getting is that Maori are fearful - little things like feeling uncomfortable in supermarkets; a young architect niece said that for the first time she felt afraid. It's almost like a fear of the concentration camp mentality.

"My brother-in-law said to me he feels like it's shooting season on Maori and we are the ducks, and every Pakeha you see has got their gun in their holster ready to pull it out.

"The 1983 Motunui case was the first time in my life that Maori and Pakeha were working together for a common goal, and I thought we were on the right track. In the last few weeks I'm feeling we've gone back."

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Ron Mark, New Zealand First, list

"For the first time I can recall a lot of Maori people I know who are mainstream New Zealanders are now being identified as Maori by others. I'm very rarely ever referred to as a Maori MP, but today I'm being referred to as a Maori MP.

"All Maori are worthless - that is the message Don Brash leaves, regardless of whether they have achieved what they have of their own merits and an equal level playing field or not.

"I predicted that sooner or later someone would ask the question - for $1.3 billion of Closing the Gaps programmes what have you achieved - and the answer was always going to be nothing or very little.

"There is this feeling that now Maori are not considered to be worth as much because obviously if you are a successful Maori you must have got there with some sort of privilege. That is not the case, and I just regret the way that Brash sells his message."

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Nanaia Mahuta, Labour, Tainui

"The slogans that have been trumped out have been unhelpful, and quite simply the nation can't afford to retreat from the initiatives that support the advancement of Maori and Pasifika people. It's the only way we can become contributors to this society and not dependent on it.

"The message coming from home is that Brash is not well supported at all.

"Politicians with a longer tooth will say this [type of debate] has been through this place before. There's certainly been a mood swing in Parliament however."

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Georgina Beyer, Labour, Wairarapa

"I think it is very, very scary. We can just see a whole lot of peeling back of collaboration between Maori and non-Maori in legislative terms for the last 20 years. It's very scary and that's the feeling I'm getting from some Maori.

"Only about 3 per cent of my electorate is Maori. My electorate was supportive of what the Government was offering on foreshore and seabed, although many preferred Crown ownership, so I said I would support the Government's proposal.

"From my personal perspective as a Maori, in making the decision, I felt I had excommunicated myself from Maoridom in many respects. So that hurts me deeply, of course.

"But on the other hand I wanted to give the so-called middle ground a go. Now that all seems to be turning to mud."

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Winston Peters, New Zealand First, Tauranga

"It's not what he said, it's the way he said it.

"The message Brash gave was one of total unworthiness. That's what a lot of Maori don't like. They understand what he is saying because many of them have held that view for a long time, as I have.

"He made a very poor attempt to identify the problem and there is no ownership of the problem from the National Party's point of view either. People are saying hang on, you were doing that yourself.

"Everyone knows there is an alarming degree of non-performance in the Maori world. But what about those that are? They are all lumped in together as failures. That's what that speech said to a lot of Maori."

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Mita Ririnui, Labour, Waiariki

"Don Brash has generated concern across New Zealand communities.

"I acknowledge there's some big issues the general population has not been kept informed of. Obviously there is a greater need to communicate Government policy. But basically he's promoting an attitude that it's okay to beat up on Maori.

"In the Maori communities [the response] by and large is, 'Are you going to hold the line or bow to the pressure?'

"As an indigenous people our rights are cemented in the Treaty of Waitangi. While it might be difficult for some New Zealanders to accept that, it is a fact."

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Bill Gudgeon, New Zealand First, list

"In any society there are people with needs of whatever nationality they belong to. New Zealand First has always believed that we are here to assist and help people in health, unemployment and housing issues and of course in the justice system. Whether they are Maori or not, we should be as a nation assisting all people.

"But the sad thing, I must say, is the remarks that have come from the leader of National are causing a division. If there are special rights to Maori he would be the cause of some of them. As a person in the banking system what did he do? He gave special scholarships to Pacific Islanders and Maori, so it is the pot calling the kettle black."

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John Tamihere, Labour, Tamaki Makaurau

"The current debate on race-related matters has some worrying effects: I have had phone calls from schoolteachers reporting that violence between Maori and Pakeha children in the playground has increased.

"What has changed is that instead of being acknowledged to have rights, we have to go back to the drawing board and explain the basis of our rights. I've got no problem debating rights, but I've got a major problem with the suggestion that if I get something as a Maori, I am taking it from Pakeha.

"I would rather have a debate on what we've got going for us, about what is great about our country, what pulls our heartstrings about being Kiwis, what makes us proud, what makes us successful, and what creates wealth so that there is opportunity for all. These are the questions I think we need to be thinking about and talking about, not creating division."

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Georgina te Heuheu, National list

"The speech will be a huge wake-up call to Maori that you cannot depend on anyone other than yourselves to realise your aspirations and your proper place in your country. If they hadn't realised it before ... the political environment now would probably be telling them that.

"What it also tells them though - which is a worry for the nation - is, if you take the foreshore stuff, they seek the right to have their day in court. If you take those rights away from an aggrieved part of the population then where does that leave them?

"[Maori reaction] goes from feelings of despair, anxiety, surprise and total marginalisation to the other end of the spectrum, which is a heightened resolve that never again will Maori be put down in their own country."

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Tariana Turia, Labour, Te Tai Hauauru

"What we are seeing is a nasty political campaign that rubbishes the idea that debate on race and treaty issues should be based on facts and logical argument.

"For a generation, the pride and passion of our younger people especially has been redirected from angry protest into historical claims research, and cultural and economic development.

"But whanau and hapu development is hard work, and the process depends on all parties being committed to certain principles - treaty principles. The partners should act reasonably and with the utmost good faith, the Crown should actively protect Maori people and remedy past injustices, and it should consult tangata whenua in order to promote mutual co-operation and trust.

"Those principles are disappearing fast.

"Our elders and leaders are really worried about how to restrain the anger and frustration of their younger people, especially those who experience poverty and disadvantage."

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Jim Peters, New Zealand First, list

"The impact on the Maori families I have talked to is of a deep disappointment because whatever one has said about the language, there is a very firm belief that he was dumping on Maori.

"Being a New Zealander to me means being born into a society which is free, where there is equal educational opportunity for all and proper and appropriate equality in life and in service in the community.

"That equality is only going to be achieved for us as a country when we recognise what has to be done to achieve it. In the political sense, I don't believe there is an understanding yet as to how we are going to get to that desirable state."

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Mahara Okeroa, Labour, Te Tai Tonga

"Sure, the debate needs to happen, but it need not be driven by a political agenda.

"It is becoming increasingly more apparent that Brash has made a number of statements that are not necessarily correct but it has fired and triggered up people's long-held attitudes and prejudices to the extent that it's becoming quite critical. The debate on one side of the fence is uninformed.

"Race relations are fragile. I don't know whether Brash knows what kind of tiger he has got by the tail."

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Dave Hereora, Labour, list

"The concern is that this is scratching an itch, because ultimately Maori want to be able to live in harmony and have some security that what we do and how we exercise our customary rights are protected and not challenged. I suppose the substance of the speech challenges that whole principle.

"Being a New Zealander is about nurturing and caring for each other. My view on my tipuna associated with discussions on the treaty at the time is that it was about finding a way of allowing non-Maori to live in our country in peace and harmony. If we follow that intention, we must manifest a way of doing that.

"The treaty as a founding document needs to run that course. I don't think we are quite there yet but we are on the way."

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Edwin Perry, New Zealand First, list

"Reaction has been pretty mixed. People are saying we will see when the finality of the policy is presented to the country by Brash. I've had only one phone call - from someone who is a radical.

"In the Wairarapa, the Maori health providers treat as many Europeans as they do Maori. The good thing about it is that these Pakeha are saying, 'We get better service, they are more caring, they are more appreciative of our concerns.'

"Two nationalities live inside me - Scottish and Maori - and they live very happily together.

"New Zealand as a country is so far down the track. A New Zealander is someone who respects where we are at, respects each other, cares for each other's wellbeing whether it is Maori or Pakeha."


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