Opinion:
On Wednesday evening, November 8, 2023, Māori TV broke a story alleging wrongdoing at Manurewa Marae. The New Zealand Herald dived right in as well quoting Māori TV. A Stuff reporter as usual arrived late on the scene to help put the boot in. The insinuation was that wrongdoing occurred at the Marae, leading to its CEO beating Peeni Henare on special votes.
The story was not fact-checked. The story did not have balance. The story is fake.
The story writer did not contact Manurewa Marae. The story writer did not contact Te Pāti Māori. The story writer did not contact candidate Takutai Tarsh Kemp. The story writer did not contact the Electoral Commission.
Māori TV and the New Zealand Herald made it all up. Fake news.
That is why we as a political movement speak our own truth. We refused to take any advertising with the N.Z.M.E Group (NZ Herald, ZB News) or Stuff. We went directly to our people through social media.
Te Pāti Māori knows that Hannah Tamaki of Vision (we call it nightmare) made a number of the allegations. Why? Ask her …. no humility, no dignity, no class. We know that Willie Jackson and his mates from the Labour Party have played the same game.
For the exclusion of all doubt:
- We will never surrender our MARAE to anyone or anything
- Manurewa Marae delivers over 60,000 food packs per year
- Manurewa Marae delivers a low-price, great-quality health clinic to thousands of Māori
- Manurewa Marae is a 24/7 service centre for our people
- Manurewa Marae is a place to pray, a place to obtain solace, a place to get married, a place to host birthdays, a place to host weddings, a place to grieve with the loss of loved ones but above all, a place to practice being Māori - our citadel, our lighthouse, our bastion, our castle
- We can and will host Polling Booths at our marae
- We can and will provide kai
- We will provide a safe place to vote
- We will never surrender who we are.
I was going to address matters like:
- I know of Pākeha polling booths hosted on campuses administered by partners of campaign candidates etc.
- Get it right, the Electoral Commission host, run and administer the voting booth, not the MARAE.
The standard of reporting is not just sloppy, unprofessional and fake.
It is consciously and consistently dark and negative.
Te Pāti Māori is always framed as dodgy, dark, not right, wrong, suspicious and by association all Māori must be.
It’s actually whitewashing racism. Worse, the story was biased and based on rumour, suspicion and speculation. That’s the state of mainstream media and now Māori TV has disgraced itself. Our party expects an apology and will attend the next Board meeting.
John Tamihere
President, Te Pāti Māori
- The Electoral Commission disclosed to Whakaata Māori it had received complaints about its use of Manurewa Marae as a voting place. The Electoral Commission has itself been under scrutiny for voting errors in last month’s general election and is undertaking an independent quality review.