New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones has ruled out ever working with Te Pāti Māori.
He’s clashed repeatedly with co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiriti Waititi, including over their approach to the report of the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care.
He says they’re feeding a message of victimhood to Maori., and it’s not a message that’s in his political lexicon, in or out of his current party.
“Politics is a theatre where ideas are trotted out. They’ve got their ideas, I’ve got mine. Whether or not New Zealand First could cohabit with the Maori Party, sadly that would be like sharing a bed with a kina – too prickly and experience for my liking,” Mr Jones says.
