New Green Party candidate Tania Waikato has turned an online political slam from Hobson’s Pledge into branded t-shirts and caps to fund her campaign for the 2026 elections.
The post on Facebook calls Waikato a “Witch-Hunter General” of schools that “haven’t pledged allegiance to the treaty”, referring to the Rārangi Rangatira list she created of schools that will continue to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
The ex Te Pāti Māori lawyer says she likes the name.
“In terms of, you know, the extreme reach bordering on defamation posts that they put up, I actually laughed when I was told about it because I was out paragliding when this was going on,” says Waikato.
“We’re going to take their attempt to, I guess, discourage people from voting for me, and create this picture that they want to paint of who I am, and ... make some campaign contributions out of it. So yeah, it’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned.”
The dig included a screenshot of Waikato from an old video of her lip-syncing “Like a Prayer” by Madonna, one of the captions underneath saying, “I know it’s going to be hard not to punch David Seymour.” Hobson’s Pledge replied with the question “Are the Greens looking to add assault to their record of dodgy behaviour by MPS?”.
Waikato says the video was not the first time it had been used and that it was a response to followers asking her to stand in the next elections.
“The line...where I said I’ll consider going into Parliament, if I get in, it’ll be hard for me not to punch David Seymour - It was clearly a joke. They know it was a joke. They are just trying to use this tired, old, colonialist ideology that Māori are savages,” says Waikato.
Followers rushed onto Facebook to support Waikato, many saying “What, no billboard?” in reference to Hobson’s Pledge’s recent campaign, where they misused a photo of Rotorua woman, Ellen Tāmati.
Ko te hunga wahine Māori kei te kero o te pū
E ai ki a Lara Greaves, toihuarewa tōrangapū ki te whare wānanga o Te Herenga Waka, ehara i te mea he ohorere ngā whakawhiu pēnei i ngā tau kōwhiringa pōti, ka mutu, e ai ki tana titiro, nāwai i uaua, kātahi ka uaua kē ake te huarahi tōrangapū kei mua i te hunga wahine Māori.
“Every piece of like academic research, anecdote, every piece of evidence we have, we know that wāhine Māori face a tougher time in politics in terms of violent threats, death threats, threats of sexual assault, trolling, picking on their appearance, skin colour, weight, all sorts of things”, te kī a Greaves.
I roto i ngā tau tata nei, kua tino tahuri mai te rōpū o Hobson’s Pledge ki te wero i ngā take Māori, me tā rātou e whakapono ai, ānō he ture mō te Māori.
“What I’ve seen from Hobson’s pledge...is there appears to be a pattern of personal attacks on Māori MPs and on Māori political figures. So rather than just looking at, say, like collective rights issues or race relations, as they like to call it, they are more targeting individuals now in their rhetoric.”
Kāore anō a Waikato kia whakamōhio mai, kōhea ia tū ai hei ngā kōwhiringa pōti i tēnei tau, heoi anō, ka whakapuakina e ia ngā kōrero katoa hei te rā o Waitangi i tēnei tau.
