Why did I join Te Pāti Māori?

I liked the cut of their jib in 2020, and I thought that JT was hilarious during his run for the Auckland mayoralty. One thing that a lot of people do when I mention that I'm a member of the Māori Party is that they talk about the previous iteration that went into coalition with National, or they mention some controversial thing or other that was in the news. This is a totally different party, though I'd admit they're probably the most right-wing party in the left-wing coalition. Politically, I see myself as a radical centrist, and that's also where I'd place Te Pāti Māori in the political spectrum. Their policies are worked out by consensus at sizeable hui, which are also live-streamed so that people can comment from a distance, so it'd be fair to say that they represent the mean - maths term lol - of what the bulk of their communities are thinking. That's why they won 6 out of the 7 Māori electorates. They've put up with me saying some pretty stupid shit, so I tend to give the team the benefit of the doubt, rather than assuming that they're trying to steal the country from Pākehā. When you actually sit down and read their policy platform, it's quite solid in the areas that Māori are struggling in: housing, health, justice, education. It's when they veer from those elements and discuss foreign policy or immigration that they can fall into that same scare tactic thinking that Winston uses. There was an article this week about how NZ-Australia international relations are still stymied at times by the fact that we speak distinctly different brands of English. Love Australian English, btw: I use it all the time! I'd say that Te Pāti Māori is in a similar situation: their PR machine is defiantly communicating in Māori English, which is an actual dialect of New Zealand English, and has almost become the default on social media for a lot of New Zealanders. Plus there's extensive use of Te Reo, which scares a lot of people. - So, yeah, sometimes TPM says stuff that's half-arsed or that has hints of xenophobia. I think that's part of the difference between the communication style on the marae vs. the high-toned PC English that people speak in Wellington. They're hardly a large party, even though there's strong support for them in the electorates, so it's not like they have umpteen dozen fact-checkers. The party seems larger because it's amplified by a number of Māori celebrities, but Labour are correct that they essentially have the mandate from Māori based on the party vote in 2023: the silent majority lol. - Regarding the 'what have they done for me' element of party politics, I essentially joined because Rawiri's pitch about a separate CNZ for Māori was really exciting. It meshed with my own view that arts funding is too centralised, and that it tends to privilege a certain class of people: middle-class or higher that speak the fluent bullshit that a liberal arts degree teaches. Disbanding the NZSO has been a long-term political goal of mine. Around about that same era where I decided to advocate for weed, I began pitching my summer festival orchestra idea to a few people. Growing up in Christchurch, it was very obvious that the CSO wasn't terribly well-funded and the NZSO gigs were more popular because of the higher standard. However, in 2024, that's no longer true: now there are 3 city orchestras that are genuinely competitive in terms of their musicianship with the NZSO itself. If it was to remain a national orchestra, I'd expect quotas of NZ music that make sure that people can listen to live versions of all those pieces that I keep posting from the golden era when the NZSO was recording a shitload of albums. Cresswell, McLeod, Farquhar, Lilburn... Plus there's the whanaungatanga; as opposed to the Greens, who have always been somewhat hesitant in their attempts to court me, Te Pāti Māori feels like a very inclusive space that a range of voices are emerging from. I'm not the only Pākehā that votes for them, but all the other ones are also big nerds. Mainstream Pākehā are deathly afraid of all these activations imo... there's a lot of insecurity about the future in mainstream New Zealand, while Te Pāti Māori are proudly presenting their Aotearoa Hou. - Plus Debbie took over the gender identity and expression law reform, so that's another thing that the party has done for me. Tbh, that issue is a takatāpui issue more than it is a white issue. Gender expression is a broader spectrum in our world than all this stuff that my 'allies' keep saying.