Race based protests over budget announcement!
Budget Day protest is being planned across the country, for this Thursday when the new coalition government releases its first budget.
The Coalition Government is gearing up to release its first Budget on Thursday and there are calls for Māori to take action on the same day.
The protest is being supported by Te Pāti Māori and its co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
When asked about the protest, Waititi said: "It's now time for us to step comfortably into our rangatiratanga and to not give too much to this Pakeha Government with their Pakeha Budget for their Pakeha economy".
NZ First's Shane Jones said the protests are "mobilising a militia of scallywags" and pushing people towards the "lunatic fringe".
Chair of Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency Merepeka Raukawa-Tait and former Auckland Business Chamber CEO Michael Barnett shared their very different views on the day of action on TV3’s AM show on Wednesday 29th.
While Raukawa-Tait supported the protests, Barnett said they were making things about race when it should be about solutions.
Raukawa-Tait, who is a former Te Pāti Māori candidate, said Waititi's stance is hardly surprising and accused coalition parties NZ First and ACT of creating the division.
"It really is the coalition minor parties that are driving some of the dissension that we are now seeing. So, it's not surprising that the Māori Party would respond because Māori are seeing their culture devalued, their language devalued, the treaty is coming under question and under fire. And if that's happened since this government has been in then why would Māori think there's going to be anything in the Budget for them?"
When questioned by AM co-host Lloyd Burr what she meant by Māori given there are politicians within ACT and NZ First who are Māori, Raukawa-Tait said Te Pāti Māori is the only party with a "mandate to speak for Māori".
"They are in Parliament to speak on behalf of the Māori constituents who voted for them."
While she acknowledged there are many Māori on the general roll, she said ultimately Te Pāti Māori is there for the Māori who voted for them.
The latest figures just released today showed that there are 17.8% of the population identified as Maori in New Zealand and at the last election in 2023 Te Pāti Maori received around 2% of the total votes cast in the election.
To use this as justification for claiming that Te Pāti Māori is the only party with a "mandate to speak for Māori” is nothing short of ludicrous. In fact Raukawa-Tait’s claim; "They are in Parliament to speak on behalf of the Māori constituents who voted for them", is actually the right thing to acknowledge. The only mandate that they have is to represent those who voted for them and that is a very small minority of the Maori population.
"Māori issues are never given the same weight of consideration as others," she said. "I don't see any other party standing up and saying, 'No there are things we can do to improve the wellbeing of Māori'."
Barnett said he identifies as one of the Māori who didn't vote for Te Pāti Māori and feels the protesters are making things about race, not outcomes.
"I have a look at the incendiary rhetoric that's been applied, the language has become the issue instead of the things that really are the issues that should be being debated," Barnett said.
Barnett added the issues should have been around housing, health, opportunity, and the future - not race.
"To my mind, that's what's wrong."
He added people are protesting before they even know what is in the Budget.
Looking at the incendiary rhetoric that is being applied to this budget announcement and we can see that it is being made into something about race, not the real economic issues that need to be addressed.
What we should, and hopefully under the current coalition government we will see, is a budget that addresses the economic issues facing New Zealand as a whole and the methods that this government is going to implement to solve those economic issues for all races in New Zealand without any special treatment on the basis of ethnicity.
Anything other than that would be a step into an Apartheid type regime where we make decisions based on race.