Political reporters have been recalling that during the 2023 election campaign Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he would not stand for “overt racism”.
“I will call it out whenever and wherever I see it,” he said.
Later, he said National’s Christopher Luxon was condoning racism by not calling it out.
“I don’t think you should condone racism by not calling it out. I think when you see it, you should call it out. And that’s what I have always tried to do and is what I’ll continue to do. He certainly is not calling out racism in the way that I think leaders should. I have and I will.”
But it seems Hipkins has a Nelsonian eye and failed to espy the racism that two of his colleagues found on a social media post from Māori Party MP Tākuta Ferris.
Ferris last week posted on Instagram an image of Labour MPs and volunteers who had been campaigning for Peeni Henare in the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection, with a caption which declared:
“This blows my mind!! Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā campaigning to take a Māori seat from Māori”’.
Oops. This didn’t even pass muster with Ferris’s race-fixated Maori Party.
An unnamed spokeswoman said the party didn’t condone the language used in the post and apologised “for any hurt it has caused”.
“We have spoken with Tākuta and instructed him to remove it.”
The Instagram post was criticised at the time by Labour’s Māori campaign chairman Willie Jackson, who said Ferris needed to “grow up” and said the MP was not only offside with Te Pāti Māori leadership, but the new Māori Queen.
He called it “racist”.
Henare has said he, too, believed it was racist.
But Labour leader Chris Hipkins couldn’t see what they were seeing.
Or he did see – but wouldn’t say so.
He said labels like that aren’t “helpful”.
Asked on Tuesday morning whether he believed Ferris’ post was racist, Hipkins said it was “a very unhelpful post” and Labour “strongly opposed the sentiment in it”.
“Labour wants to run an inclusive election campaign. I think [Labour byelection candidate] Peeni Henare and the language he used in the byelection campaign represented us incredibly well. He was very inclusive in his byelection campaign. That’s the type of general election campaign that Labour will run.”
However, Hipkins did not explicitly call the post racist.
Mind you, it will be recalled that Hipkins has struggled to define the term “woman”.
Asked to explain how he and his government define “woman”, he is reported as saying:
“Um… to be honest that question has come slightly out of left field for me,” Mr Hipkins replied.
“Well biology, sex, gender. Um.”
He paused again before saying: “People define themselves, people define their own genders.”
When pressed further Hipkins said “people identify for themselves”.
He added:
“I wasn’t expecting that question, so it wasn’t something I pre-formulated an answer on. But in terms of gender identity, people identify for themselves.”
On the matter of Ferris’ remarks, Hipkins said:
“I think that we should be running inclusive election campaigns in New Zealand. I want to lead an inclusive Government.”
Presumably he is thinking of a Government with the Maori Party as a coalition partner, which means Ferris one day – who knows? – could be the Minister with responsibility for the Race Relations Commission.
The Herald asked Hipkins again: Why won’t you say it’s racist?
“I just don’t think those kind of labels are helpful. It’s language that I strongly disagree with.”
Today he was given another opportunity to spot the racism that he will call out when he finds it, because Tākuta Ferris has doubled down on his criticism of non-Māori supporting Labour in the by-election
RNZ reports that in a post to Instagram on Tuesday night, Ferris said it should have been unacceptable for members of other ethnic communities to campaign for Peeni Henare.
His observations might usefully be taken into consideration by citizens who are unsure about whether they should endorse Maori wards in their communities.
“The Māori seats are for Māori voices only. They’re for the Māori people to decide… and then I heard Willie Jackson in the news talking about how ‘unacceptable that was from Tākuta’ and ‘should know better’ and ‘we care about everyone in the Labour Party.”
And:
“Guess what Willie, I don’t give a crap who you care about or what you care about. In the Māori seats, it’s about the Māori people, Māori only,” he said.
Ferris said the initial post was “homogenising Māori as a minority”, which Labour was doing in “plain daylight”.
“Homogenising” Māori meant making Māori appear as just another one ethnic group.
“They’re homogenising Māori whilst we are fighting for our Māori seat… homogenising means you’re making Māori appear as just another one of these ethnic groups in the Māori seat.
“That should blow your mind because it’s completely unacceptable and we need to get to a level where we recognise it as unacceptable and we’re happy to say it’s unacceptable.”
National’s Chris Bishop said the post was “racist, pure and simple”.
And – guess what – Hipkins said “I absolutely condemn” Ferris’ comments, which were now “getting well into that territory” of racism.
“Those comments should absolutely be condemned. They will create division, they will create, I think, real resentment from a lot of New Zealanders. Is Tākuta Ferris saying that all those New Zealanders with Toitū te Tiriti stickers on their cars and letter boxes need to take them away, unless they’re Māori?
“I just think that’s not the New Zealand way. It is also not the spirit that some of us have been working very hard over the last couple of years to try and generate.”
The racism furore has had one troubling consequence.
It has shifted attention from the Electoral Commission’s confirming it is investigating whether election-day rules were broken.
In a social media message posted by Ferris, the MP was seen walking with a punnet of food with the words “VOTE (blanked out word) TODAY!!” in bold type.
Later on election day, the post had been removed.
The post was reshared on X (formerly Twitter) and drew a response from the Electoral Commission.
The commission confirmed it was looking into a complaint about the social media post made by Ferris, as well as two billboards and a gazebo which had been left up after the Māori Party was asked to take them down.
But it seems Hipkins has a Nelsonian eye and failed to espy the racism that two of his colleagues found on a social media post from Māori Party MP Tākuta Ferris.
Ferris last week posted on Instagram an image of Labour MPs and volunteers who had been campaigning for Peeni Henare in the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection, with a caption which declared:
“This blows my mind!! Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā campaigning to take a Māori seat from Māori”’.
Oops. This didn’t even pass muster with Ferris’s race-fixated Maori Party.
An unnamed spokeswoman said the party didn’t condone the language used in the post and apologised “for any hurt it has caused”.
“We have spoken with Tākuta and instructed him to remove it.”
The Instagram post was criticised at the time by Labour’s Māori campaign chairman Willie Jackson, who said Ferris needed to “grow up” and said the MP was not only offside with Te Pāti Māori leadership, but the new Māori Queen.
He called it “racist”.
Henare has said he, too, believed it was racist.
But Labour leader Chris Hipkins couldn’t see what they were seeing.
Or he did see – but wouldn’t say so.
He said labels like that aren’t “helpful”.
Asked on Tuesday morning whether he believed Ferris’ post was racist, Hipkins said it was “a very unhelpful post” and Labour “strongly opposed the sentiment in it”.
“Labour wants to run an inclusive election campaign. I think [Labour byelection candidate] Peeni Henare and the language he used in the byelection campaign represented us incredibly well. He was very inclusive in his byelection campaign. That’s the type of general election campaign that Labour will run.”
However, Hipkins did not explicitly call the post racist.
Mind you, it will be recalled that Hipkins has struggled to define the term “woman”.
Asked to explain how he and his government define “woman”, he is reported as saying:
“Um… to be honest that question has come slightly out of left field for me,” Mr Hipkins replied.
“Well biology, sex, gender. Um.”
He paused again before saying: “People define themselves, people define their own genders.”
When pressed further Hipkins said “people identify for themselves”.
He added:
“I wasn’t expecting that question, so it wasn’t something I pre-formulated an answer on. But in terms of gender identity, people identify for themselves.”
On the matter of Ferris’ remarks, Hipkins said:
“I think that we should be running inclusive election campaigns in New Zealand. I want to lead an inclusive Government.”
Presumably he is thinking of a Government with the Maori Party as a coalition partner, which means Ferris one day – who knows? – could be the Minister with responsibility for the Race Relations Commission.
The Herald asked Hipkins again: Why won’t you say it’s racist?
“I just don’t think those kind of labels are helpful. It’s language that I strongly disagree with.”
Today he was given another opportunity to spot the racism that he will call out when he finds it, because Tākuta Ferris has doubled down on his criticism of non-Māori supporting Labour in the by-election
RNZ reports that in a post to Instagram on Tuesday night, Ferris said it should have been unacceptable for members of other ethnic communities to campaign for Peeni Henare.
His observations might usefully be taken into consideration by citizens who are unsure about whether they should endorse Maori wards in their communities.
“The Māori seats are for Māori voices only. They’re for the Māori people to decide… and then I heard Willie Jackson in the news talking about how ‘unacceptable that was from Tākuta’ and ‘should know better’ and ‘we care about everyone in the Labour Party.”
And:
“Guess what Willie, I don’t give a crap who you care about or what you care about. In the Māori seats, it’s about the Māori people, Māori only,” he said.
Ferris said the initial post was “homogenising Māori as a minority”, which Labour was doing in “plain daylight”.
“Homogenising” Māori meant making Māori appear as just another one ethnic group.
“They’re homogenising Māori whilst we are fighting for our Māori seat… homogenising means you’re making Māori appear as just another one of these ethnic groups in the Māori seat.
“That should blow your mind because it’s completely unacceptable and we need to get to a level where we recognise it as unacceptable and we’re happy to say it’s unacceptable.”
National’s Chris Bishop said the post was “racist, pure and simple”.
And – guess what – Hipkins said “I absolutely condemn” Ferris’ comments, which were now “getting well into that territory” of racism.
“Those comments should absolutely be condemned. They will create division, they will create, I think, real resentment from a lot of New Zealanders. Is Tākuta Ferris saying that all those New Zealanders with Toitū te Tiriti stickers on their cars and letter boxes need to take them away, unless they’re Māori?
“I just think that’s not the New Zealand way. It is also not the spirit that some of us have been working very hard over the last couple of years to try and generate.”
The racism furore has had one troubling consequence.
It has shifted attention from the Electoral Commission’s confirming it is investigating whether election-day rules were broken.
In a social media message posted by Ferris, the MP was seen walking with a punnet of food with the words “VOTE (blanked out word) TODAY!!” in bold type.
Later on election day, the post had been removed.
The post was reshared on X (formerly Twitter) and drew a response from the Electoral Commission.
The commission confirmed it was looking into a complaint about the social media post made by Ferris, as well as two billboards and a gazebo which had been left up after the Māori Party was asked to take them down.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
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