Kerre Woodham: Who is Te Pati Māori to decide who's Māori enough?

Bloody hell. If there is anyone who is entitled to go on a little light trauma induced shoplifting spree, it would be ACT MP Karen Chhour. For those who don't know her background, Karen grew up in the state care system. She was elected to parliament as an ACT Party MP in 2020 with the goal of reforming Oranga Tamariki, having seen rather more of it than most of us have. Before politics, she was self-employed in the New Zealand made clothing industry. She's a mother of four and she's lived on Auckland's North Shore for the past 30 years. So just the sort of person you'd like to see in Parliament: life experience, lived experience, a mum, firm stake in the future of the country for her children, self-employed, hard worker. Exactly the sort of person you'd like to see.  

Well, we'd like to see. If you're a Māori Labour MP or a member of Te Pati Māori, oh no, you don't want Karen Chhour in Parliament. Because she might be Māori, but she's not the right sort of Māori, is she? For those people, it's not enough to whakapapa back. You have to be their sort of Māori. Which means that although we have a record number of Māori who have been elected to this Parliament on their merits, most of them got there because they were the best person for the job. There are 33 MPs of Māori descent across all of the six parties. Nine in Labour. Six in Te Pati Māori, six in the Greens, five in National, four in New Zealand First, three in ACT.  You would have to say that's a really good representation across all political viewpoints. But no. To the ones on the left, the ones on the right of the political spectrum do not count. They are simply not the right sort of Māori. And no one, it appears, is more wrong than Karen Chhour.  

Former Labour Deputy Leader, the late and unlamented Kelvin Davis said in 2022, Chhour needs to leave her “Pākehā world” and stop looking at the world through a “vanilla lens”. Willie Jackson urged her to cross the bridge, to come over from the Pākehā to the Māori. Labour MP Willow Jean Prime called her a “sellout” during the first reading of the Oranga Tamariki Amendment bill. A comment on social media from Te Pati Māori said Chhour had a “disconnection and disdain for her people”. “If it was done right, she would have been raised mildly, should have been raised being connected to her whakapapa and having a knowingness of her Māori tongue. Instead, she was raised Pākehā with a disconnection and disdain for her people”. “Karen and her experience is exactly why we need Section 7 AA”. Later, a Te Pati Māori MP said Chhour had been made a puppet by her party. What a pack of righteous offensive bigots. No wonder Karen Chhour is feeling under siege.  

“I can't control what the public is saying about my personal traits around being Māori enough or not being the right kind of traumatised person. Hearing it from other MP's that shouldn't be allowed. I'm still a person. I'm still a person and I feel like I'm getting that stripped away from me day by day in this place. I've had enough. I asked for an apology, that's all I wanted, and I didn't get one, and that is so disrespectful.” 

Yeah, it is. It's disrespectful and it's offensive. And will Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee do anything about it? Nope. He's not going to go down as one of the all-time greats, is he? ACT Party leader David Seymour says the speaker appears to be giving a green light to racial harassment in Parliament.  

So what is Māori enough? Is Dr. Shane Reti Māori enough? Good luck telling Shane Jones he's not Māori enough. James Meager gave a great maiden speech... oh, he's National, so he probably doesn't count. He is Māori, but on the right of the political spectrum, so probably not Māori enough. He said the left do not own Māori. They don't own the poor and they don't own the workers. No party and no ideology has a right to claim ownership over anything or anyone, and Amen to that, James.  

I'm not Māori enough to say what is Māori and what is not. I have never in the time I've read about the history of this country known all Māori to think the same way. Iwi aren’t united in their views, hapu aren’t united, and people within hapu aren't united in their views. People and families aren't united in their views. Who the hell are Te Pati Māori and those sanctimonious mealy-mouthed arses on the left to decide what it is to be Māori and whether you're Māori enough? Surely being Māori enough is having the confidence to know who you are, to decide how you want to vote, to decide which ideology you best think will improve the lot of your people, which is why you entered Parliament. How very bloody dare they. 

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