TVNZ’s kaupapa Māori debate had an unc problem

The old guards of Māori politics sure know how to dominate a debate. Whether they know how to lead Māori into the future is another issue.

It was one meant to keep the “the whānau group chat going”. TVNZ’s Te Karere presenter Scotty Morrison and 1News reporter Te Aniwa Hurihanganui put our Māori politicians in the hot seat last night, and the end result was kinda like that point in the night at the shed party when the celebrations go from happy to hōhā. Auē: has anyone considered that there are way too many mātua at this hui?

There were seven debaters – Act deputy leader Nicole McKee, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi and Opportunity’s Christchurch Central candidate Eden Skipper joined National’s Tama Potaka, Labour’s Willie Jackson and NZ First’s Shane Jones, for whom it was technically round two as they had appeared in a debate hosted by Te Ao Māori News and Moana Maniapoto the night before. The uncs had unfinished business and they weren't shy in trying to settle it. Oh, and the Greens’ Marama Davidson was there.

Jackson hit all his usual beats, lambasting on multiple occasions the “most anti-Māori government I’ve ever seen in my lifetime”. He interrupted a good bit about rotten corn (iykyk) to remind the crowd that Labour was freezing the fuel tax for the next three years. And he was as fighting fit as you’d expect when answering questions about gang scandals by drawing a link between recent billboards attacking the left bloc to the Act Party through the Taxpayers’ Union.

Jackson also gave an "oh, whatever” to Jones’ insistence that forcing Ngāpuhi into a single commercial treaty settlement would save the Crown some pūtea. “This is someone who wants to borrow $30 billion to buy the BNZ,” Jackson said, “but he can’t find the money for Māori.” At times Potaka was just as keen to go tit for tat, dredging up the foreshore and seabed controversy when Jackson tried to criticise his efforts in championing Māori kaupapa.

You had to feel for Skipper – “Captain Climate”, as Morrison called him – for being a newbie among giants of Māori politics. Opportunity is a party many Māori are cautious about; it has treaty-related policy and a treaty expert on the team, but hasn't made a lot of noise about those facts or its Māori candidates (surprise: there are two in the top 10 on the party's list). It's not committed to entrenching the treaty but, then again, neither is National or Labour. 

But Skipper declining to raise his hand when the debaters were asked if they agreed the health system was “racist” will raise eyebrows. Instead, he echoed his leader Qiulae Wong in challenging his fellow panellists to a 10-year bipartisan health plan. Which made Jones huff and puff and blow this political Hoani-come-lately down, berating him in te reo Māori for trying to challenge the matua.

Taihoa – while we’re talking about Jones, what was up with that answer to how much a loaf of bread, a block of butter, a tray of eggs and a 2L bottle of milk costs? His guesstimate of $35 was $13 off the actual price, and the matua blamed his lack of experience in the shopping aisle on the fact that his wife and daughter buy the groceries instead. You know that whakataukī about walking backwards into the future? Jones truly is the living embodiment of it.

So instead, let’s hear it for the aunties. McKee held her own in an arena where she was always destined to be the loser. Her admittance that she can’t name, through her Māori or her Pākehā side, an ancestor who signed the treaty will resonate with many urban Māori. And she was convincing when mentioning the charter schools her party has championed, which have seen significant interest from iwi wanting autonomy in educating their mokopuna. 

But McKee also opted for “dedicated” when asked to use a Māori kupu to describe Act (“mana” was right there!). And seeing Act’s deputy leader quite literally throw her hands in the air when asked what her party’s policy was for protecting conservation land didn't give a particularly promising vision of the future.

In contrast, Davidson floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. Where her co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick tends to be combative, Davidson is graceful – she lets the squabblers trip over themselves and comes in to bite when invited. Everyone needs an aunty like that; but it does mean she sometimes fades into the background.

Not all hope is lost for our tāne. Among the uncs, there was one who came out looking better than ever: Scotty Morrison.