September 04, 2023
Iwi leaders ignore pūtea pitch
Māori Party president John Tamihere says the party’s support is coming from poor Māori, not from Māori elites.
He says the election campaign is already being defined by the millions of dollars from wealthy donors boosting the visibility of National and ACT.
But when he wrote 110 emails to iwi leaders asking for them to support Te Pāti Māori with their cheque books, he got no response.
“The party will be funded from the most vulnerable communities of Māori who should be the recipients of some of that largesse that was made in their name so we have to be very careful in our society that we don’t parody pakeha society and start to grow elites around resources that were won in the name of the many but are being used in the hands of the few,” Mr Tamihere says.
He says Te Pāti Māori stands against the neoliberal status quo that is supported by both Labour and National with tax policies that favour the rich.