Rawiri Waititi fronts up on Tākuta Ferris comments - in te reo
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Under-fire Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer turned up alone at Parliament on Tuesday as the fracas over the comments from one of their MPs continued into a new week.
Waititi somewhat deflected from the media pressure by refusing to answer any questions in English, given it is Māori Language Week.
He reiterated some level of opposition to the comments of outspoken Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris, but suggested they had started a useful conversation.
The co-leaders have essentially faced open defiance from Ferris, who has doubled down on comments against people from other ethnicities campaigning in Māori seats.
Ferris first courted controversy with a post on his Instagram showing a photo of Labour volunteers campaigning in the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election, captioned “This blows my mind!! Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā campaigning to take a Māori seat from Māori”.
Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer apologised personally to Labour over the comments, but Ferris doubled down on them following the by-election, both in a late night Instagram post and when questioned by Stuff.
Ferris suggested to Stuff that given he held his own electorate he did not need to necessarily follow the directions of the co-leaders.
Waititi refused to speak to journalists in English on Tuesday but continued to criticise Ferris for his comments, while not quite condemning them.
“We don't support the way Tākuta laid down his kōrero,” Waititi said.
“But it’s the start of a conversation between indigenous people. It’s a good thing to have a big discussion with us and the indigenous people of the land.”
Only Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer were in the House for Question Time on Tuesday. The party abruptly removed MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi from the whip role last week, leading to an approximately $20,000 pay cut.
Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere largely backed Ferris in an interview with Radio Waatea on Monday.
Tamihere said Ferris had been too “aggressive” but the substance of his comments was fair.
“The substance of what he was trying to say - which he said not as well as he could have - was right from my perspective,” Tamihere said.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins reiterated on Tuesday that it would be difficult to work in Government with any party that felt as Ferris did.
“The sentiment expressed by Tākuta Ferris is entirely wrong and it is incompatible with the sort of Government that I want to lead,” Hipkins said.
On current polling there is no path to Government for Labour without some level of support from Te Pāti Māori, a fact that National has been eager to exploit.
NZ First MP Shane Jones said he did not believe it was appropriate for the party to refuse to speak to journalists in English, given how many whanau only spoke English.