Listen Now: 
The leaders of the country’s newest political alliance face a grilling tonight.
Billy Te Kahika from the New Zealand Public Party and Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross from Advance New Zealand are guests on Māori Television’s Te Ao with Moana.
Host Moana Maniapoto says the weekend launch event that drew more than 2000 supporters to Auckland’s Logan Campbell Centre took mainstream political commentators by surprise.
The alliance will allow party votes from NZPP supporters to be counted despite the party being formed too late to register.
She says Mr Te Kahika has attracted a strong social media following during the COVID-19 lockdown with his criticism of the Government’s response.
"I’ve known Billy since he was a teenager. He's very charismatic and very talented. Whether that translated to anything meaningful in terms of policy is another matter. He does attract a lot of criticism for views people would describe as conspiracy-related, so we will be talking about some of those," she says.
Moana Maniapoto is also keen to discover how much the New Zealand Public Party is a Māori party, given Billy Te Kahika’s decision to stand in Te Taitokerau.
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