Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been warned he faces some tough conversations over his Government's policies regarding Māori at Rātana today as the political year kicks off.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer joined Breakfast from Rātana this morning.
Not for the first time, she was scathing in her assessment of the Government's policies, hitting out at National's Luxon, NZ First leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, and ACT leader David Seymour.
"We've got a Government... [of] three men who came together who had absolutely nothing in common, and they've been able to build a government off the foundations of attacking Māori," she said.
"I think that's probably the only thing that these three men running this Government do have in common.
"They will be taken to task about that, particularly the Prime Minister."
But Luxon can still expect to be welcomed, Ngarewa-Packer said.
"The mood is extremely uplifting, just like we experienced in Tuurangawaewae," she told Breakfast.
"We have huge numbers... a whole sense of solidarity and a decorum that you see in indigenous peoples when they know that they're under attack but they're more confident of who they are and what we are like united.
"We as indigenous people have always been raised to manaaki first and foremost – and it doesn't matter who's coming on.
"They will always be welcomed, they will be fed, and they will be treated with the utmost respect."
But tough questions will follow, she added.
"It will be the dignity that everyone always receives in manaaki, but there will also be some hard kōrero face-to-face."
Ngarewa-Packer was asked what her advice to Luxon would be ahead of his arrival at the pā.
"I think my advice would be, first and foremost, to unhinge himself from his two mates," she said.
"But I don't think he's going to listen to me about that.
"What we do need to see is a prime minister who promised during his campaign that he would be unifying Aotearoa.
"Tangata whenua are not the issue here, we are not the problem in Aotearoa, we are the solution. We are a beautiful people."
She said the Government was "vilifying" Māori and setting out on a "destructive path".
And Seymour in particular was singled out for strong criticism. He's not planning to attend rātana, though Luxon and Peters are.
Seymour said he wished "them all the best for their gathering" but added he'd "never quite seen the political relevance of it when you've got Waitangi the next week".
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