David Farrar: Tamihere backs Ferris

Stuff reports:

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere says MP Tākuta Ferris was, in essence, correct when he hit out at non-Māori supporting Labour’s Māori electorate campaign.

Tamihere said Ferris could have worded his comments better, but added that he generally agreed with what the MP had said. That is despite Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer telling the Labour and Green leaders that his comments didn’t reflect her party’s views.

Mike's Minute: Labour is watching the Māori Party closely

I see the plan.

Labour is sweating the current Māori Party meltdown, so they have rolled out Willie Jackson, who claims Takuta Ferris is handing political extremists ammunition to paint the Māori Party as too weird to ever do business with Labour.

There are several problems with the plan.

Matua Kahurangi: Takuta Ferris shows his true colours

Te Pāti Māori MP Takuta Ferris has revealed exactly who he is – a racist with more European blood than Māori who thinks New Zealand’s democratic process should be reserved for certain skin colours. The funny thing - he is more white than Aunty Debbie!

Instead of debating ideas, policies or Labour’s failures, Ferris chose to sneer at Indians, Asians and Pākeha for campaigning in the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection. He didn’t see New Zealanders exercising their democratic right. He saw race, and he spat on it. This is why Te Pati Māori are the most divisive pieces of crap in government.

Bob Edlin: Questions are raised about Maori reliance on customary food-gathering.....

Questions are raised about Maori reliance on customary food-gathering – but a Govt MP is more concerned about T-shirts

Points of order peppered proceedings in Parliament when Māori Party MP Takuta Ferris was raising questions about the Supreme Court ruling that riverbeds can be included in Māori customary marine title orders, if other legal tests are met.

As Politik’s Richard Harman noted, the country’s most senior Māori judge, Sir Joe Williams, was one of the four Supreme Court judges who arrived at that decision.

Bob Edlin: Waititi’s demand to “get on with it” presaged the sovereignty issue being aired....

Waititi’s demand to “get on with it” presaged the sovereignty issue being aired – and claims about the race card being played

It looks like the Government and Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi shared one objective last Thursday. Both wanted to bring an end to proceedings that determined the fate of the three Māori Party MPs who had performed a haka during the vote on the first reading of the Principles of Treaty of Waitangi Bill last November.

Louis Collins, in an RNZ report headed The House: A sentencing hearing in Parliament, observed:

David Seymour Exposes Tākuta Ferris, Big-Time

Te Pāti Māori Got Nowhere Near The MMP 5% Threshold and Should Be Kicked Out of Parliament. Te Pāti Māori MPs are Racist Activists, and a Total Waste of Public Funding.

Click to view

Graham Adams: Tamihere’s woes

Te Pāti Māori goes silent after scandal

John Tamihere and Te Pāti Māori are in a world of pain

The government cutting Whānau Ora funding would be a crippling blow.

For the longest time, it has been impossible to make Te Pāti Māori MPs behave with dignity and respect as they have revelled in their status as the nation’s foremost “Say Bum to Mummy” party.

David Farrar: Tākuta Ferris found to have misled the House

The Privileges Committee has reported:

The Privileges Committee has considered a question of privilege concerning a member’s denial that he made a particular statement in debate, and recommends that Tākuta Ferris be required to apologise for deliberately misleading the House.

The irony is he was accusing other MPs of being liars, but in fact the record has shown Ferris himself lied.