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PoliticsSeptember 14, 2022

The ‘McMāori’ saga and the business of te reo

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Following the launch of Whittaker’s miraka kirīmi block, former race relations commissioner Joris de Bres remembers when he started a nationwide debate by suggesting businesses use more Māori words.

When I was asked by the Dominion Post in early 2003 to comment, as race relations commissioner, on the use of te reo in the public sphere, I chose to focus on the private sector, noting that companies were lagging behind the public and community sector. I said it would be good for their business, good for the language and good for the image of the country if more companies used it. “Using Māori in publications, having a Māori company name and using Māori wherever possible alongside English would be good for companies,” I said.

At the time it was hard to find any product with a Māori name or any use of te reo by private companies. I said the only examples I could find were the health warning on cigarette packets and the Māori name on the banner of the Gisborne Herald, Te Nupepa o Tairāwhiti.

I didn’t think the Dominion Post would give my comments a lot of space (if it published them at all) but the story appeared on the front page with the heading “Firms urged to adopt Māori names”. An accompanying cartoon had a McDonald’s sign changed to “McMāori” with a customer being asked “Do you want fries with your hāngi?”

Dominion Post front page: March 6, 2003 (Image: Supplied)

They were obviously hoping for a reaction, and they got it. National MP Murray McCully issued a press release saying I was “taking political correctness to new extremes”, that my comments were “unsolicited and no doubt totally unwanted by the nation’s private sector businesses”, and that I should “let the private sector organise its own affairs”.

That afternoon he raised the issue in Parliament’s question time. He was supported by New Zealand First MP Dail Jones and United Future MP Marc Alexander. Jones said I should stick to my responsibilities rather than giving advice about how businesses should run their business. Alexander called my comments a “jaw-dropping initiative” and asked whether I would lead by example and change my name to “Hone de Bres”.

The Dominion Post duly reported the debate the next morning with some further comment from the MPs. Alexander was quoted as saying: “You have to wonder if Mr de Bres has a secret agenda to deliberately sabotage race relations in this country. We are a multicultural nation and, frankly, business is there to do business, not run flaky social agendas for the pleasure of Mr de Bres and his ilk.”

The NZ Press Association picked up the story and it appeared in other newspapers, including Hawke’s Bay Today, who featured it prominently and made it the subject of their daily editorial under the heading “A dose of unrealism”. They said I had “advanced the unreality [my] position seems to foster by saying private businesses ought to use Māori names”.

“The idea is daft, not because using the Māori language is inappropriate, but because it is unrealistic. There has been no impediment to private firms using Māori in their names. But the point is that business knows best what’s best for business, without being told what to do by someone whose background is conspicuously lacking in any hands-on business experience.”

Dominion Post front page: March 7, 2003 (Image: Supplied)

The response from business people approached by the Dominion Post was less hysterical. Montana Wines spokeswoman Zirk van den Berg merely said using Māori was a marketing issue. “So far there are not enough people who speak Māori that we feel it necessary to put it on our bottles.”

Telecom spokeswoman Allanah James said essential information in the front of the phone book was translated into Māori, Cook Island Māori, Sāmoan, Tongan and Chinese.

Air New Zealand spokeswoman Rosie Paul said there was “no formal policy on using Māori culture, language and people but it’s just something that follows – if you’re promoting New Zealand as a destination, then our whānau becomes part of that promotion.”

There was one business executive who was interested in further exploring what I was suggesting. Ted van Arkel, managing director of Progressive Enterprises, owners of Foodtown and Woolworths supermarkets (now Countdown), arranged for me to speak at his Rotary Club in Parnell. I got a good reception there. On the basis of that, Ted invited me to address the company’s annual store managers’ conference in Auckland later in the year (they had over 160 stores throughout New Zealand).

I assembled a small group including Lana Simmonds-Donaldson from Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, Ana Tapiata from Te Puni Kōkiri, Kallon Basham from the Human Rights Commission and designer Jenny Ralston from JR Design to strategise and work on the presentation. We met at the Backbencher and the resulting powerpoint was a virtual journey through a re-imagined Woolworths supermarket with te reo used throughout, from a parallel name (Te Whata, proposed by fellow human rights commissioner Dr Merimeri Penfold) to a store welcome, trolley advertisements, products with bilingual signage and a till receipt with a Māori message.

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There was demographic information to support the proposal and other reasons why it made good business and social sense to use te reo. After the rumpus earlier in the year, I was very nervous before the presentation but it was very positively received by the store managers.

A highly productive partnership ensued between the Human Rights Commission, Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori and Te Puni Kōkiri, to promote te reo to all New Zealanders in Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori each year. Progressive Enterprises became a supporter of that campaign, initially by producing a bilingual version of its weekly grocery mailer for Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori and then by adopting bilingual signage for all the departments in its supermarkets. This week, they have launched te reo as a self-checkout language option. Independently, their shelves began to fill with more and more wine and food products with Māori names.

It’s difficult to imagine today that te reo was almost completely absent from the business sector a mere 20 years ago. The now widespread use of the language in the media, in branding, in business and workplace communication and in advertising is welcome, but when it is not accompanied by a genuine commitment to the revitalisation and normalisation of the language it risks being merely tokenistic or appropriating the language simply for business gain. Te Taura Whiri recommends that with appropriate advice businesses develop a te reo policy and plan and regard their use of te reo as a continuing journey.

It’s sad that there are still racist objections when a chocolate company produces and promotes a single product with a wrapper using te reo alongside English. But perhaps the objections of this noisy minority are even more hysterical because the use of te reo in business is now simply a fact of life in Aotearoa. The challenge now is for businesses to promote and use it in a manner that reflects a genuine commitment to reo and tikanga, avoids tokenism and cultural expropriation, reflects genuine engagement with tangata whenua and involves a commitment to continuing innovation.

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Endorsements are great for campaigning, but what do they mean after the elections? (Image: Tina Tiller)

Local Elections 2022September 13, 2022

Just the ticket: Why election candidates love to campaign with a team

people with party signs
Endorsements are great for campaigning, but what do they mean after the elections? (Image: Tina Tiller)

Local elections include plenty of truly independent candidates – but a lot fewer than you might expect. Shanti Mathias looks at how party endorsements and electoral tickets can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

“I like working in a team,” says Chrys Horn. The scientist is running as a candidate on the Environment Canterbury council, as part of The People’s Choice, a local ticket. Horn, along with 30 others, has joined the group, whose candidates are standing for the Environment Canterbury regional council, Christchurch City Council and community boards. 

Being part of The People’s Choice has advantages for candidates like Horn. She doesn’t have to organise her campaign on her own; she can share hoarding space and some campaigning resources. 

But tickets like The People’s Choice are also useful for voters. “One of the reasons people don’t vote is that it’s hard to tell what [candidates] stand for,” says Horn. Being part of a ticket gives voters a “signal of where their candidates stand”.

Local government expert Julienne Molineaux agrees. With multiple elections and candidates, many more than a central election, “[tickets] make the voting task easier,” she says. “If there are four candidates for my local board but I only know one of them – but I really trust that person – then I can vote for all their colleagues.” 

As with many aspects of local elections, the role of tickets and party endorsements are inconsistent through New Zealand, and the formal and financial arrangements can vary wildly. Outside of Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch, almost every candidate stands as an independent or is unaffiliated. It’s not clear exactly why this is, says Molineaux, a senior lecturer at AUT. 

In Auckland and Christchurch it might be a function of size, she suggests; these councils are bigger, influence more people, and have a higher degree of visibility than councils in other regions. Wellington is a different case; the population area for Wellington City Council is similar to the Hutt, where candidates are almost always independents. “Perhaps that is just Wellington functioning as the centre of government,” Molineaux says. 

Endorsements and tickets can change how people vote in local elections (Photo: RNZ)

The role of local parties

Not all tickets are made equal. “They can be very ad hoc and short term, for a single purpose,” says Molineaux. “They don’t [necessarily] have the discipline of a party.” Without formal agreements, a relationship may fall apart after an election. Candidates on the same ticket may end up running against each other. A ticket can be nothing more than a loose agreement between people to write the same words in the “affiliation” section of their candidate nomination form and attend some of the same events. 

But tickets can also be much more formal arrangements. Groups like The People’s Choice in Christchurch, or Communities and Residents (C&R) and City Vision in Auckland are well-established and organised, Molineaux says, and they know what they’re doing when election season rolls around. “These groups have been around for decades, and have set protocols and processes for candidate selection and campaign running.”

While not officially affiliated, these groups have loose links to political parties. The People’s Choice is associated with Labour, City Vision with Labour and the Greens, and C&R with National. However membership of those political parties is not a prerequisite for joining the ticket. 

Candidates may highlight their endorsements on their hoardings (Photo: Supplied)

What an endorsement does for a candidate

In addition to tickets, which may run in multiple elections or just in one ward or local board area (the “Rodney First” ticket is an example of the latter in Auckland), political parties can also endorse candidates running for local councils – however only Labour and the Greens currently do this. Again, Molineaux says, the meaning of an endorsement can vary, and arrangements aren’t always transparent to voters. 

At a bare minimum, an endorsement is a party’s agreement not to run a competing candidate in that race. For example, Efeso Collins is running for Auckland mayor as an independent with a Labour endorsement; this means there are no other Labour candidates competing for the Auckland mayoralty, so the left-leaning vote isn’t split. 

An endorsement might also mean a political party mobilises its volunteers and local connections to support a candidate. The level of support can vary; some candidates run as “Green” or “Labour” (again, National doesn’t do formal local election endorsements), and use volunteer networks, while others receive an endorsement because they’re party members with party-aligned policy positions, but don’t receive any other help, support, or mandate on how to vote once elected. 

“I wanted a Green Party endorsement so I could be transparent about my views and values” says Tyla Harrison-Hunt, who is running for Christchurch City Council in the Riccarton ward. “[The Greens] help with information and local policy that members can use, but I’m not receiving other kinds of support.”

Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, a Nelson councillor running for re-election, says an endorsement isn’t necessarily guaranteed the second time around. He had to undertake an interview process before receiving an official endorsement from the Green Party. “The kaupapa is already there and something I’m on board with, so it makes sense to be aligned with the broader Green Party,” he told The Spinoff. 

There’s a good reason for political parties to have some involvement in local elections; the two government systems – central and local – have to work alongside each other to fund projects like roads or to legislate on housing. (That said, the contributions of local government don’t always stick in the mind – Jacinda Ardern had to apologise in 2019 after forgetting that Wellington mayor Justin Lester had been a Labour candidate.)

“People go from local to central government, but also from central to local government,” Molineaux says. “Getting involved with local government is in itself satisfying, but some people see it as a career – a training ground to raise your profile and practise campaigning, public speaking, fundraising, and working with others to advance policy.”

A plethora of examples of this phenomenon come to mind: current Auckland mayor Phil Goff was a Labour MP for many years; former National MP Nick Smith is currently running to be mayor of Nelson. Current Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick raised her profile with a tilt at the Auckland mayoralty in 2016 before campaigning for a Green Party seat. Tory Whanau told The Spinoff, meanwhile, that suggestions her Green-endorsed run for the Wellington mayoralty is designed as a stepping stone to a high list placing with the party are “completely untrue”.

Justin Lester – being Labour endorsed doesn’t guarantee the prime minister will remember (Photo: Justin Lester / Twitter)

Congratulations, you’ve won your election. Now what?

The real test comes after the election. Will those elected to councils as part of a group maintain that relationship and work together to advance policies? Will candidates with a party endorsement toe the party line? 

One of the advantages of voting for a ticket is that the candidate with policies you like will have people around them to support them once they’re elected, preventing “minority mayors”. Having the backing of others can help you act strategically, Molineaux says. A ticket elected to a local board, for instance, can have a majority to elect the chair, who has a high level of authority to set agendas and work with council.

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But there can also be consequences for candidates who don’t stick to the terms of an endorsement. In Wellington in the current election, longstanding councillor Iona Pannett is running as an independent. Pannett previously had a Green Party endorsement, but her votes to protect character housing upset Green Party members in Wellington and beyond. Molineaux says that although candidates may run on a ticket or receive a party endorsement, they aren’t “whipped” to ensure their votes stay consistent.

“After the election, we’ve agreed we’ll work together – but that doesn’t mean we’ll vote together on every policy,” says Horn, of her People’s Choice ticket. But there are only four people running for Environment Canterbury; even if they all get elected they’ll have to work with other councillors with different priorities and opinions. “In local councils, you have to work together all the time, with everyone.”


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