National launches Māori seats campaign to be ‘on the marae’ with Harete Hipango and Hinurewa Te Hau

Former Te Pāti Māori leader Dame Tariana Turia (left) with National Party leader Christopher Luxon and National's Te Tai Hauāuru candidate Harete Hipango at a fundraising event for National's Whanganui candidate Carl Bates.

The National Party has launched an election campaign 20 years in the making, once again fielding candidates in Māori seats, which it says is a bid to “reconnect” with Māori voters.

It signals a shifting point for the party - which in not-so-distant years has even called for the seats to be abolished, before softening to wanting to phase them out if Māori so wished - and an admission that in not running in those seats they’d lost some support from Māori.

It also comes amid a week of discourse focused on health inequity for Māori, during which party leader Christopher Luxon strongly opposed the Government’s attempts to address disadvantages faced by Māori in the health system, saying instead the focus needed to be entirely on need.

He has also campaigned against the Māori Health Authority and increased representation for Māori in co-governance arrangements.

Luxon was there today to launch the campaign, welcoming candidates Harete Hipango - a current Whanganui-based MP now running in Te Tai Hauāuru, and Hinurewa Te Hau, who is running in Tāmaki Makaurau.

“This is a really proud day for National, two wāhine toa representing National in two Māori seats giving real choice,” said Luxon ahead of the party’s big conference tomorrow in Wellington.

“They are fantastic candidates with strong history in our party ... incredibly strong advocates for Māori.”

National Party candidates Hinurewa Te Hau (Tāmaki Makaurau) and Harete Hipango (Te Tai Hauāuru). Photo / Michael Neilson

They were also introduced by party president Sylvia Wood and chairman of National’s Māori wing Kahurangi Blue, Tu Williams, who spoke of the significance of returning to the seats after 20 years.

Former leader Judith Collins in 2021 announced the party would return to the seats at this election, saying the shift was not about actually winning the seats, but being present “on the marae” and fighting for the party vote.

The candidates acknowledged this today, speaking of how finally Māori voters in those electorates could have representation in National.

They also challenged the view from some that National did not stand for Māori, speaking to past achievements like kohanga reo, Māori women’s welfare league, Whānau Ora and starting the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process, along with making rapid progress under Chris Finlayson and passing historic legislation including the Tūhoe and Whanganui settlements.

“For the first time in 20 years Te Tai Hauāuru and Tāmaki Makaurau will have a voice for Māori voters on the Māori roll to vote,” said Te Hau.

“They deserve diversity and representation, and they have got it with us.”

Hipango said it was a “significant moment in the National Party’s history” and a commitment “to value our Māori voters in the Māori seats again”.

Te Hau was on Te Pāti Māori’s list in 2014 and 2017 and was its chairwoman in Te Tai Tokerau for three years, but previously told the Herald she had always been a National Party voter - her father Matiu te Hau served three terms as National’s Māori vice president and she stood for National in Māngere in the 1990s.

Te Hau said her affiliation came when Te Pāti Māori had an accord to work with National - under John Key’s leadership between 2008 and 2017 - and through a whānau connection.

National had not run a candidate in a Māori seat since 2002 and the party even actively campaigned to abolish them. Former leader Sir John Key pulled back on the policy but the party didn’t decide to run in any of the electorates until Luxon indicated a change in approach.

On the party vote in Tāmaki Makaurau, National polled just 3.2 per cent in 2020. Te Hau said part of her campaign would be connecting Māori with National and better understanding the issues that affected them. Te Hau will be up against incumbent Peeni Henare of Labour, along with Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Moana Kemp and Green candidate Darlene Tana Hoff Neilson.

Hipango, meanwhile, has been selected in Te Tai Hauāuru. Many pundits regard Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer as the favourite.

In 2020, Ngarewa-Packer lost to Labour’s Adrian Rurawhe by just 1053 votes, and since then has raised her profile significantly both nationally and domestically as an MP.

Hipango this year withdrew from selection for the Whanganui electorate, which she held from 2017 to 2020.

On the party vote in Te Tai Hauāuru National is especially unpopular, in 2020 receiving just 786 or 3 per cent of the votes.

The electorate’s Rātana roots make it quite the Labour stronghold, receiving 62 per cent in 2020 with the traditional Māori faith in behind Rurawhe’s campaign.

Labour MP Soraya Peke-Mason has been selected as her party’s candidate and, like Rurawhe, has strong connections to the Rātana Church, a key part of the electorate.

Peke-Mason has opted to go stay off the party list, meaning her only route into Parliament is winning the seat - a tactic designed to force the hand of voters, but which could also indicate a low list placing was on the cards.

Te Pāti Māori founder Dame Tariana Turia held the seat from 2002 until 2014, although much of her first term was for Labour prior to the foreshore and seabed controversy and her splitting off to start her new party. Turia recently announced she was backing Hipango in the seat.