The Children's Minister was facing Parliament's Social Services and Community committee on Wednesday to answer questions about her Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) bill. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
ACT leader David Seymour has described Te Pāti Māori as "race fanatics" after a MP told Minister Karen Chhour she did not understand the "essence" of being Māori.
The Children's Minister was facing Parliament's Social Services and Community committee on Wednesday to answer questions about her Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) bill.
The legislation would allow the government to set up a young serious offender category and military-style academy order in the Oranga Tamariki Act.
Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi raised concerns with Chhour over the legislation, as well as the minister's removal of Section 7AA from the Act.
"Often in your rhetoric, you refer to ancestry cannot matter more than the safety of a mokopuna, which is absolutely abhorrent to tikanga, it is abhorrent to Māori, it is abhorrent through the way in which we see the world," she said.
Chhour, who is Māori, told Kapa-Kingi she disagreed with what she was saying.
"Because you've got a gap of knowledge, Minister, you don't understand the essence of being Māori," Kapa-Kingi responded.
It was not the first time Kapa-Kingi had directed such comments towards Chhour. Last May, she told Chhour she had been "made a puppet" by her party.
Seymour said attacking somebody for not understanding a particular cultural background came from an obsession with race.
"I think when you attack a person and say their problem is they can't understand what it means to be a race, what you're really saying is to your supporters is their race is their most important characteristic and their problems are caused by a lack of primacy for that race. There's been a few political movements in history that have taken that approach, and it hasn't ended well."
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said Kapa-Kingi had more experience than anybody else to speak about the inequities of Māori.
"I get how it's seen out of context. But absolutely in context it's about ensuring the removal of 7AA, the way Oranga Tamariki has been a plight on te ao Māori, so I think that's what she's saying and that's the context that we support her in saying that as well," she said.
Seymour said Te Pāti Māori refused to accept they had done anything wrong.
"That is my point, they are race fanatics, racial supremacists, people who believe that before you can talk about anything else you have to talk about your ethnic background."
It comes as New Zealand First Ministers Shane Jones and Winston Peters made comments towards Green MPs, which resulted in Green musterer Ricardo Menéndez March writing to the Speaker.
Leader of the House Chris Bishop said he had concerns about the decline of standards in Parliament.
"We all need to be a bit more civil to each other. It's a serious place, we're sent here in serious economic times to improve the country, and we need a bit of civility in this Parliament."
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