Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is unapologetic for her reaction to the Children's Minister appearing emotional this week. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is unapologetic for her reaction to the Children's Minister appearing emotional this week. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Ngarewa-Packer yesterday published a series of short videos on social media in which she appeared to make light of Chhour breaking into tears on ThreeNews this week over what she claimed were regular personal attacks from MPs, particularly those from Te Pāti Māori (TPM).
One video caption read: “Acts Minister for [Oranga Tamariki] get the feels because TPM are calling her out”.
Another video shared by Ngarewa-Packer referenced how to deal with “white tears” in the workplace.
Chhour, who is Māori, didn’t comment on the social media posts.
It followed Act’s publicly airing its frustrations with Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee about how he dealt with a complaint from Act concerning one of its MPs, Laura Trask, being told by Te Pāti Māori’s Mariameno Kapa-Kingi she couldn’t chair a select committee because she wasn’t of Māori or Pasifika descent.
Brownlee didn’t believe the matter should be assessed further, which party leader David Seymour viewed as a “green light to racial harassment”.
This added to Act’s frustration over Kapa-Kingi calling Chhour a party puppet in te reo Māori while in the House during a general debate in May. Chhour said she had approached Brownlee about “continuous bullying behaviour” in the House.
The two issues led to Chhour on Wednesday speaking through tears about what members of her party were facing, saying attacks were regular and personal in nature.
Children Minister Karen Chhour says the personal attacks on her are unfair. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Chhour has subsequently refused to give further information about who was attacking her and what the attacks were because she believed it was not helpful to do so.
However, many of her public comments about the attacks referenced Te Pāti Māori.
Ngarewa-Packer, speaking to the Herald today, defended her social media posts about Chhour and maintained her party’s comments towards the Children’s Minister were criticisms of her politics.
“Just because you have whakapapa Māori [Māori heritage] does not necessarily mean you are pro-Māori, that you can see and feel and hear Māori who are suffering and needing help.
“It’s not my place to feel sorry or beat down because we’re staunch at what it is that we’re here to do.
“I see the people that need us to stay strong and be their voices, more than I do this minister who is perhaps not coping.”
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said she didn't have much empathy for Chhour. Photo / Marty Melville
Questioning Chhour’s performance also came from Labour leader Chris Hipkins this week, who said it appeared Chhour was not coping in the role.
Seymour had strongly denied this and was adamant Chhour didn’t need time away from Parliament or her role as minister.
Ngarewa-Packer described Chhour’s emotions as “crocodile tears” and said she lacked empathy for the minister if she expected not to be challenged on her policies, namely the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act which ensured the agency’s consideration of whakapapa.
“When you’re a minister in charge of an extremely important portfolio ... [and] you’re going to be part of a regime that is undoing whakapapa connections, that is displacing Maori, I think it’s really hard for us to see the authenticity and sincerity of those comments.
“I have no doubt that those tears come from a point of frustration and from a point of, ‘I’m not getting my own way in this space’.”
She recalled her repeated calls for former Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis, a Labour MP at the time, to resign over failures to protect Māori children.
In another social media post this afternoon, Ngarewa-Packer described the attacks her party received and included an image of a hand-written note that included racist slurs and racist claims about Māori.
The post claimed the party received threats of death and of bombing their families. Ngarewa-Packer said such hate was witnessed “daily”.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
