At first glance the headline may appear to have positive connotations. You would be wrong. For some time now we have been watching the unedifying spectacle of two factions within the Māori Party at war with each other. This is where ‘true to its roots’ resonates. Māori have historically been a warrior race. But for the advent of more civility brought about by the, according to the Māori Party, dreadful happening of colonisation, tribal factions might still be at each other’s throats.
The current stoush within the Māori Party may not be tribal but there are definitely factions at play. They have only half a dozen MPs in parliament but they have magically managed to split themselves evenly into two groups of three. This is a power play for dominance of the party mechanisms and neither faction is going to come out of the battle smelling of roses.
These people are showing their true colours, illustrating what many of us have suspected all along: they are in the game purely for themselves and what they can get out of it. They are nothing more than a bunch of activists pretending to be something else. It is a façade that they have managed to blow the cover right off. Their ulterior motives are there for all to see.
As politicians go, they are completely fake and seem to lack any vision or recognition of what their role should be. Any semblance of understanding that they might have responsibilities to other people is lost on them. Their minuscule support of just over three per cent of the overall vote they attracted from their fellow activists doesn’t mean they are there just to represent them.
They are there to represent their people, or so they tell us but the majority of their race want nothing to do with them, as the three per cent figure shows. Most of their people are leading honest lives and working hard to provide for their families like the rest of us. Their statistics might be worse in some areas but most want to get ahead and enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Not so those in the Māori Party and their fellow travellers, who feed off a diet of grievance, grifting and greed. These fixations are inextricably linked. Every year is 1840 to them and they have turned reinventing history into an art form. Truth, when inconvenient, is just something to be ignored, as to acknowledge too many truths would signal the end of the gravy train. It is unfortunate that the prime minister seems to want to extend the timetable and the Māori Party will enthusiastically keep stoking the flames Luxon creates.
These people are doing an excellent job of destroying themselves and should be left to get on with their nonsense. In putting themselves above and beyond anyone or anything else, they are destroying any chance Hipkins has of forming a coalition Government. It’s quite obvious the Māori Party are not fit for government and they are fast becoming past their use by date.
Every poll since the last election has shown Hipkins needs the Māori Party to get him and Labour over the line. He is still refusing to rule them out, as he finds himself between the proverbial rock and a hard place. One almost has to feel sorry for the guy: the Māori Party is turning out to be a noose around his neck – one that will tighten the closer we get to the 2026 election.
JC is a right-wing crusader. Reached an age that embodies the dictum only the good die young. This article was first published HERE
These people are showing their true colours, illustrating what many of us have suspected all along: they are in the game purely for themselves and what they can get out of it. They are nothing more than a bunch of activists pretending to be something else. It is a façade that they have managed to blow the cover right off. Their ulterior motives are there for all to see.
As politicians go, they are completely fake and seem to lack any vision or recognition of what their role should be. Any semblance of understanding that they might have responsibilities to other people is lost on them. Their minuscule support of just over three per cent of the overall vote they attracted from their fellow activists doesn’t mean they are there just to represent them.
They are there to represent their people, or so they tell us but the majority of their race want nothing to do with them, as the three per cent figure shows. Most of their people are leading honest lives and working hard to provide for their families like the rest of us. Their statistics might be worse in some areas but most want to get ahead and enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Not so those in the Māori Party and their fellow travellers, who feed off a diet of grievance, grifting and greed. These fixations are inextricably linked. Every year is 1840 to them and they have turned reinventing history into an art form. Truth, when inconvenient, is just something to be ignored, as to acknowledge too many truths would signal the end of the gravy train. It is unfortunate that the prime minister seems to want to extend the timetable and the Māori Party will enthusiastically keep stoking the flames Luxon creates.
These people are doing an excellent job of destroying themselves and should be left to get on with their nonsense. In putting themselves above and beyond anyone or anything else, they are destroying any chance Hipkins has of forming a coalition Government. It’s quite obvious the Māori Party are not fit for government and they are fast becoming past their use by date.
Every poll since the last election has shown Hipkins needs the Māori Party to get him and Labour over the line. He is still refusing to rule them out, as he finds himself between the proverbial rock and a hard place. One almost has to feel sorry for the guy: the Māori Party is turning out to be a noose around his neck – one that will tighten the closer we get to the 2026 election.
JC is a right-wing crusader. Reached an age that embodies the dictum only the good die young. This article was first published HERE
2 comments:
Consider the conundrum facing the msm. By choosing not to appear to take sides in the verbal handbags at 10 paces at the ok corral, their caution appears to accomplish the exact opposite.
Radio New Zealand appears to have taken a side in the partly Maori party’s internal meltdown — not through deliberate bias, but through a failure so basic it should be taught in journalism school. Lillian Hanly’s report this morning on Eru Kapa‑Kingi, former staffer and son of MP Mariameno Kapa‑Kingi, prints his every accusation: “toxic” leadership, a “dictatorship model,” threats to staff — all unchallenged, unverified, and without comment from John Tamihere, Rawiri Waititi, or Debbie Ngarewa‑Packer.
Result? RNZ hands the moral megaphone to one faction. The loudest voice fills the vacuum — in this case, Eru Kapa‑Kingi. Street‑fighter energy: clipped, defiant, confrontational. “I didn’t care and I still don’t care,” he declares. Every word screams bravado. It rallies his sycophants. It projects courage. And in the absence of scrutiny, it reads as ‘integrity’.
Punches land in the details. Eru claims the leadership uses “power to silence people” and orchestrates lies to discredit him. RNZ prints this without challenge. No questions about context, accuracy, or self-interest. His performative aggression is framed as moral authority. The effect: his fan base sees defiance as virtue, performance as truth.
Meanwhile, the broader picture is flattened. Kiri Tamihere Waititi’s Instagram metaphor of being “forced into a boxing ring” perfectly captures the external pressure applied to broker a truce. RNZ ignores it. By omitting mediation and external context, the broadcaster leaves readers with a narrative that implicitly validates the insurgent Kingi‑Ferris faction while framing leadership as obstructive or corrupt.
This is not a subtle misstep. Ethics and basic journalism require verification, balance, and accountability. Skip them, and reporting ceases to be neutral — it becomes a faction amplifier. Hanly’s failure makes RNZ look like it has chosen a side. That’s a public broadcaster giving the appearance of partisanship.
Eru Kapa‑Kingi audacious, street-smart, and unafraid of controversy. But he is also aggressive, performative, and aware of how to weaponise perception.
RNZ could have interrogated his claims, contextualized his statements, exposed contradictions, and analyzed his character. Instead, they handed him a megaphone. Result: performance masquerades as principle, bravado as evidence, and public perception is skewed.
The lesson is blunt: skip the basics, and reporting becomes theatre. Amplify the loudest, and you effectively pick a side. RNZ, in this case, lets Kapa‑Kingi speak unopposed and ignores the boxing ring around him. Balance dies quietly. Ethics get lost in amplification. And the audience is left applauding what they think is truth.
In Maori politics , the real battle is not only for leadership — it is for narrative control.
And in that ring, RNZ isn’t observing. It’s refereeing, and by default, cheering from the corner.
—PB
there is a very simple solution to all this... just abolish the Maori seats. End of...
But it would appear that despite all the veiled threats and innuendo, this has been deemed to not be relevant, to be to risky, from politicians and a Govt not bold enough.
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