Māori activists and their sympathisers in the media have feasted long and hard on the hikoi, repeatedly presenting it as a harbinger of the dominant political force they insist disaffected Māori are becoming.
From the day the first protesters stepped out in opposition to David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, mainstream journalists have frequently inflated the numbers who took part as well as offering sycophantic coverage to the Toitū te Tiriti movement organised by Te Pāti Māori that led it.
Now the results are in for the by-election and they have been caught out. But instead of accepting that the extremely low turnout proves they were wrong, journalists have doubled down by pretending it confirms their prognostications.
On TVNZ’s Q&A on the Sunday morning after the byelection, 1News’ political editor, Maiki Sherman, told Jack Tame the results “speak to the fact that Te Pāti Māori has made it cool to be Māori and a lot of people have got in behind that. You know we’ve seen the movement, the hikoi against the government… and that Toitū te Tiriti movement has essentially been run by Te Pāti Māori, and they have definitely capitalised on that and people are getting in behind them…
“Oriini Kaipara represents that sort of excitement a lot of Māori are getting behind… A unique brand of Māori that a lot of Maori are getting behind.”
How the political editor of any media outlet can claim “a lot of Māori” got behind Kaipara’s win and have thus fulfilled the promise manifested in the hikoi beggars belief. Winning only 6000-odd of the preliminary votes from a pool of 44,000 dedicated Maori voters — or roughly 13 per cent — is in fact a stunning failure for Kaipara and Te Pāti Māori, especially given its well-funded campaign and the relentless boosterism of the nation’s mainstream media.
Jack Tame’s soft-ball interview with Kaipara on Q&A before the byelection showed just what an easy ride our mainstream journalists often give Te Pāti Māori representatives. Kaipara’s claim that her party had been busy repealing laws in Parliament — and then scrambling to find evidence for her bizarre assertion on her mobile phone that she hadn’t carried with her — elicited no more than a puzzled look from Tame rather than an opportunity to press her on her stunning ignorance. Anyone vaguely acquainted with politics will know that while governments can and often do repeal laws, Opposition parties can only do so with the support of a majority in the House.
Given journalists’ indulgence of Te Pāti Māori’s subversive and separatist agenda, it is perhaps inevitable they should have felt the need to double down after Saturday night’s dismal showing. Certainly, they have been loath to admit that apathy was the winner on the night.
RNZ was determined that none of its audience should come to that conclusion. Its political reporter Lillian Hanly opined: “The result is a clear signal that, in Tāmaki Makaurau at least, voters see a need for strong Te Pāti Māori representation… Turnout in the by-election was 27.1 per cent, far from impressive. But low turnout does not necessarily signal apathy.”
In RNZ’s upside-down world, the lowest turnout for a by-election in living memory still somehow represents “a clear signal” in support of Te Pāti Māori and in no way should be interpreted as the party’s failure to significantly engage with voters.
However, Waatea News — which faithfully promotes the views of TPM’s president John Tamihere — won the contest for trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The fact it devoted 800 words to explaining just why the by-election should be viewed as a stunning victory for Te Pāti Māori rather than a failure is a signal that the party fears a common-sense interpretation of the results might ruin its perpetual narrative of native triumphalism.
A column — titled “No-show, is not a no-vote: The meaning of abstention in Tāmaki Makaurau” — argued that “On the surface, such a low turnout suggests apathy. A closer look, however, points to a different possibility: abstention as strategy.”
Apparently, would-be Labour voters stood aside to let the Te Pāti Māori candidate win.
This might make sense if Labour’s leaders had suggested — subtly or directly — that its followers might want to do the decent thing and stand aside. But everyone from Chris Hipkins and Willie Jackson to Peeni Henare himself had made it abundantly clear how important it was for Labour to win Tāmaki Makaurau for themselves. (Interestingly, Hipkins’ YouTube videos backing Henare no longer seem to be available on line.)
Nevertheless, Waatea News argued valiantly that “[Labour voters] choosing not to vote was… less about indifference and more about calculation. By sitting out, many Labour-aligned whānau effectively allowed Te Pāti Māori to retain Tāmaki Makaurau, preserving six kaupapa Māori voices in the House. Abstention became a strategy: a no-show was not a no-vote, but a way of shaping the overall balance of representation.”
And just in case anyone had missed the point, the column concluded: “The Tāmaki Makaurau by-election result is not proof of apathy. It is evidence of Māori voters recalibrating their power under MMP. In 2025, silence became a strategy — one that returned Te Pāti Māori via Oriini Kaipara with a decisive mandate, while keeping Peeni Henare in Parliament as Labour’s seasoned list MP.”
Reading the column, a cynic might recall the quip from the Soviet bloc era: “I never believe anything until it is officially denied.”
In among the indulgence from the mainstream media, last week Platform host Michael Laws showed his audience what a skilful interview looks like.
Talking with Māori academic Ella Henry, he listened patiently as she recited the mantra that rangatahi — which apparently include Māori from the ages of 18 to 36 — are a burgeoning force that has the power to profoundly reshape New Zealand’s politics, as the hikoi demonstrated.
Laws, however, wouldn’t let Henry get away without backing her assertions with a figure.
Laws: “What do you regard as success in terms of turnout [at the by-election] so you can say: “Ah, well, [Māori] are starting to engage”?
Henry: “Tāmaki Makaurau has the highest population of Māori in the country — and therefore in the world — and so anything over 50 per cent I would consider to be a very successful campaign in terms of activating Māori to vote.”
Unfortunately, the total turnout for the by-election including special votes has been calculated to be 27 per cent. In short, the view that Māori have been energised by the hikoi and are poised to be an even more influential and engaged voice in national politics has been delivered a serious blow.
You won’t find the mainstream media telling you that — any more than they will acknowledge that in 2023 only one in six Māori voters on both the Māori and general rolls gave their party vote to Te Pāti Māori.
Reading most media coverage, however, you’d imagine the minor party spoke for most Māori everywhere.
Unfortunately, journalists’ tacit support for Tamihere’s crew seems to have not done them a lot of good. Reporters from RNZ, TVNZ, Stuff, and the Sunday Star Times were barred from attending Te Pāti Maori’s post-election celebrations at Te Atatu Peninsula on Saturday night.
When party co-leader Rawiri Waititi was asked about the implications for democracy in denying the media access to elected representatives, he said Māori hadn't had “a fair shot at democracy since democracy was implemented in this country”.
This astonishing assertion comes from a leaders of a party that is the beneficiary of the most outrageous gerrymander in New Zealand’s history, which currently guarantees Māori at least seven seats in Parliament alongside the extensive representation they accrue via the general roll.
To add insult to injury, Waititi added: “We owe mainstream media nothing.”
The ramifications of that claim was made clear to 1News’ viewers on Sunday night. They were treated to a clip of Waititi’s wife, Kiri, physically blocking Maiki Sherman’s access to Kaipara as she left a cosy interview with Miriama Kamo on taxpayer-funded Marae in which she was seated beside her handlers, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, presumably to ensure she didn’t embarrass them further.
If Sherman ever thought her public support for Māori activism on a state-owned broadcaster would guarantee her access to not only an elected politician but one whose public profile rests entirely on her career as a former political journalist and colleague she was sadly mistaken.
She has just been reminded that the left’s famous circular firing squad is always waiting in the wings.
Graham Adams is an Auckland-based freelance editor, journalist and columnist. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
Now the results are in for the by-election and they have been caught out. But instead of accepting that the extremely low turnout proves they were wrong, journalists have doubled down by pretending it confirms their prognostications.
On TVNZ’s Q&A on the Sunday morning after the byelection, 1News’ political editor, Maiki Sherman, told Jack Tame the results “speak to the fact that Te Pāti Māori has made it cool to be Māori and a lot of people have got in behind that. You know we’ve seen the movement, the hikoi against the government… and that Toitū te Tiriti movement has essentially been run by Te Pāti Māori, and they have definitely capitalised on that and people are getting in behind them…
“Oriini Kaipara represents that sort of excitement a lot of Māori are getting behind… A unique brand of Māori that a lot of Maori are getting behind.”
How the political editor of any media outlet can claim “a lot of Māori” got behind Kaipara’s win and have thus fulfilled the promise manifested in the hikoi beggars belief. Winning only 6000-odd of the preliminary votes from a pool of 44,000 dedicated Maori voters — or roughly 13 per cent — is in fact a stunning failure for Kaipara and Te Pāti Māori, especially given its well-funded campaign and the relentless boosterism of the nation’s mainstream media.
Jack Tame’s soft-ball interview with Kaipara on Q&A before the byelection showed just what an easy ride our mainstream journalists often give Te Pāti Māori representatives. Kaipara’s claim that her party had been busy repealing laws in Parliament — and then scrambling to find evidence for her bizarre assertion on her mobile phone that she hadn’t carried with her — elicited no more than a puzzled look from Tame rather than an opportunity to press her on her stunning ignorance. Anyone vaguely acquainted with politics will know that while governments can and often do repeal laws, Opposition parties can only do so with the support of a majority in the House.
Given journalists’ indulgence of Te Pāti Māori’s subversive and separatist agenda, it is perhaps inevitable they should have felt the need to double down after Saturday night’s dismal showing. Certainly, they have been loath to admit that apathy was the winner on the night.
RNZ was determined that none of its audience should come to that conclusion. Its political reporter Lillian Hanly opined: “The result is a clear signal that, in Tāmaki Makaurau at least, voters see a need for strong Te Pāti Māori representation… Turnout in the by-election was 27.1 per cent, far from impressive. But low turnout does not necessarily signal apathy.”
In RNZ’s upside-down world, the lowest turnout for a by-election in living memory still somehow represents “a clear signal” in support of Te Pāti Māori and in no way should be interpreted as the party’s failure to significantly engage with voters.
However, Waatea News — which faithfully promotes the views of TPM’s president John Tamihere — won the contest for trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The fact it devoted 800 words to explaining just why the by-election should be viewed as a stunning victory for Te Pāti Māori rather than a failure is a signal that the party fears a common-sense interpretation of the results might ruin its perpetual narrative of native triumphalism.
A column — titled “No-show, is not a no-vote: The meaning of abstention in Tāmaki Makaurau” — argued that “On the surface, such a low turnout suggests apathy. A closer look, however, points to a different possibility: abstention as strategy.”
Apparently, would-be Labour voters stood aside to let the Te Pāti Māori candidate win.
This might make sense if Labour’s leaders had suggested — subtly or directly — that its followers might want to do the decent thing and stand aside. But everyone from Chris Hipkins and Willie Jackson to Peeni Henare himself had made it abundantly clear how important it was for Labour to win Tāmaki Makaurau for themselves. (Interestingly, Hipkins’ YouTube videos backing Henare no longer seem to be available on line.)
Nevertheless, Waatea News argued valiantly that “[Labour voters] choosing not to vote was… less about indifference and more about calculation. By sitting out, many Labour-aligned whānau effectively allowed Te Pāti Māori to retain Tāmaki Makaurau, preserving six kaupapa Māori voices in the House. Abstention became a strategy: a no-show was not a no-vote, but a way of shaping the overall balance of representation.”
And just in case anyone had missed the point, the column concluded: “The Tāmaki Makaurau by-election result is not proof of apathy. It is evidence of Māori voters recalibrating their power under MMP. In 2025, silence became a strategy — one that returned Te Pāti Māori via Oriini Kaipara with a decisive mandate, while keeping Peeni Henare in Parliament as Labour’s seasoned list MP.”
Reading the column, a cynic might recall the quip from the Soviet bloc era: “I never believe anything until it is officially denied.”
In among the indulgence from the mainstream media, last week Platform host Michael Laws showed his audience what a skilful interview looks like.
Talking with Māori academic Ella Henry, he listened patiently as she recited the mantra that rangatahi — which apparently include Māori from the ages of 18 to 36 — are a burgeoning force that has the power to profoundly reshape New Zealand’s politics, as the hikoi demonstrated.
Laws, however, wouldn’t let Henry get away without backing her assertions with a figure.
Laws: “What do you regard as success in terms of turnout [at the by-election] so you can say: “Ah, well, [Māori] are starting to engage”?
Henry: “Tāmaki Makaurau has the highest population of Māori in the country — and therefore in the world — and so anything over 50 per cent I would consider to be a very successful campaign in terms of activating Māori to vote.”
Unfortunately, the total turnout for the by-election including special votes has been calculated to be 27 per cent. In short, the view that Māori have been energised by the hikoi and are poised to be an even more influential and engaged voice in national politics has been delivered a serious blow.
You won’t find the mainstream media telling you that — any more than they will acknowledge that in 2023 only one in six Māori voters on both the Māori and general rolls gave their party vote to Te Pāti Māori.
Reading most media coverage, however, you’d imagine the minor party spoke for most Māori everywhere.
Unfortunately, journalists’ tacit support for Tamihere’s crew seems to have not done them a lot of good. Reporters from RNZ, TVNZ, Stuff, and the Sunday Star Times were barred from attending Te Pāti Maori’s post-election celebrations at Te Atatu Peninsula on Saturday night.
When party co-leader Rawiri Waititi was asked about the implications for democracy in denying the media access to elected representatives, he said Māori hadn't had “a fair shot at democracy since democracy was implemented in this country”.
This astonishing assertion comes from a leaders of a party that is the beneficiary of the most outrageous gerrymander in New Zealand’s history, which currently guarantees Māori at least seven seats in Parliament alongside the extensive representation they accrue via the general roll.
To add insult to injury, Waititi added: “We owe mainstream media nothing.”
The ramifications of that claim was made clear to 1News’ viewers on Sunday night. They were treated to a clip of Waititi’s wife, Kiri, physically blocking Maiki Sherman’s access to Kaipara as she left a cosy interview with Miriama Kamo on taxpayer-funded Marae in which she was seated beside her handlers, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, presumably to ensure she didn’t embarrass them further.
If Sherman ever thought her public support for Māori activism on a state-owned broadcaster would guarantee her access to not only an elected politician but one whose public profile rests entirely on her career as a former political journalist and colleague she was sadly mistaken.
She has just been reminded that the left’s famous circular firing squad is always waiting in the wings.
Graham Adams is an Auckland-based freelance editor, journalist and columnist. This article was originally published by ThePlatform.kiwi and is published here with kind permission.
13 comments:
New Zealand MSM are shameful at the same time they are willfully encouraging division. It is abhorrent that they apply a two tier rule set to one self styled political party but hey, that's where we are at. The same seeming applies across the board from police, elctoral commission, you name it they seem to be untouchable...they question never asked is why? These people are no politicians they are simply racial activists. They represent themselves and no body else and more especially not 'maoridom'. They cannot because you cannot represent an Heterogeneous (or non-homogenous) group.
This is probably more a class conflict than as it is a cultural conflict as feudalism is tribalism.
Maiki Sherman learnt a lesson the other day, they see her not as one of them, not as a rangitira, but more likely as taurekareka - someone only worthy of doing the dirty work. Are you listening yet Ms Sherman? That message, I am sure has been well understood.
TPM put forward a trailblazing candidate in Oriini Kapiara and she takes it out in a landslide. National / ACT / NZ First all so scared they didn’t even have the guts to put a candidate forward. Great to see the serious parties of the people participating, while the clown cars are parked up while their drivers wring their clown hands and drink their clown chai lattes.
As history shows our MSM are just "useful idiots" where Maorification is concerned. They are only tolerated by the Maori Party if they are useful.
We do need to be concerned though by the result as it doesn't matter how many people turned out to vote because these seats are a "given" to part-Maori voters. A possible seven seats. The party are pretty persuasive with their rhetoric on social media to their chosen audience. Therefore, if these voters lives don't get better, they will turn out in much bigger numbers.
People miss the point if they don't see this as a worldwide trend. In the mind of these political candidates, the good of the nation has become subservient to the "identity" of the chosen candidate.
More analysis on the dismal state of media in nz and throw the spotlight on the main non-performing players such as Sherman, tame, Campbell, please graham. And I hope Karl du fresne and ani o’brien and matua and bob edlin too. We need our hikoi too.
Reminds me of UK where 40pc did not vote and Labour won two thirds of the seats with 34pc of the 60pc who did vote. A Claytons landslide. Lib Dems were happy, hailing a revival on the back of mainstream remain Tory protest votes but their actual pc showed no real change and based on a low turnout. It is all first past the post, I realise that.
The far left circus rolls on.....
When Luxon ended seymour's treaty bill which simply said all kiwi's must be treated equally, I knew nz was finished. Luxon could have had the referendum and let us decide. They are either scared of the activists or in agreement with them. This is weak. End the maori seats. Kick tepati out on their ear. Why aren't they?
I think this gets to the nub of this. Luxon has still not given any rationale for his ludicrous statements regarding the TPB and never will because he cannot. I too think we are beyond the point where NZ can emerge from the mire. NZF were correct, there are no Principles in the treaty but denying NZ the opportunity to skewer the gravy train once and for all has helped to shoot us all in the proverbial foot. Where to from here eh?
Clearly you have a myopic view of the world.
Nobody sensible is on the Maori role.
Definite whiff of sour grapes about Mr. Adam’s post. The result of Saturday’s by election may not have been that significant, but last year’s hikoi definitely was. At least 50,000 people that last day in Wellington, even the most sceptical observer would admit. Not all supporters of Te Pati Maori, or even opponents of Seymour’s bill, but certainly all expressing a pride to be Māori. What democratic ally-minded person could not welcome that, given the long history of discrimination against Māori in this country.
If I recall correctly, some years ago, there were journalists, and others, going to Cuba and the Soviet Union for training?
How many of those people are now taking an active part in the demolition of NZ ?
Any names other than Ardern ?
MfK
Democracy and equal citizenship are not racial discrimination. If any of the estimated 50,000( yeah right)had bothered to read Seymour’s bill they would realise they were marching against the system that has given them quality of life they take for granted. Brainwashed by clever hate filled racist marketing the crowd made me think of sheep being drafted into pens. Baa Baa Baa.
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