National draws on past for Māori support

National is set to launch its third Kahurangi Māori roopu in Tāmaki Makaurau tonight.

Māori spokesperson Nuk Korako, who started the first chapter in Ōtautahi four years ago, says the party is celebrating a Māori connection that goes back more than a century.

He says Māori traditionally were conservative, with rangatira like Apirana Ngata, Maui Pomare and Wi Pere being MPs in the Liberal and Reform parties that eventually merged to become National in 1936.

"Wi Pere’s great great grandson Te Hira Pere is one of the stalwarts of the emerging Kahurangi National roopu, particularly in Tāmaki Makaurau. He's staunch Māori, staunch te reo speaker, currently studying law at Waikato, and he is the grandson also of Rangimarie Rose Pere. He is the face of an emerging Māori āhua we’ve got," Mr Korako says.

He expects to eventually see Te Hira Pere as a National Party MP.

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