Independent Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris says he won’t support a Luxon-led government, but did not say what he would do if the left fails to win what he expects to be a razor-close election.
Ferris is seeking re-election as an independent after his expulsion from Te Pāti Māori and he told Q+A he wanted to back a left-leaning government.
Interviewer Jack Tame asked whether Ferris would, in theory, work with a government led by Christopher Luxon.
Ferris said: “We wouldn’t support a Christopher Luxon-led government. We would support a left-led government.
"But you know, in this election, this is going to be one of the closest elections this country has ever seen. So if it turns out that we don't get a left-leaning government, then we really have to think about what we're going to do in that regard.
"Do we just leave our people to suffer another three years of this sort of behaviour, which will only get worse, or do we do something about it, whatever it is we can do?"
He did not explain what that might involve.
Earlier in the interview, Ferris agreed with iwi leader Tuku Morgan’s June description of the coalition as “the most racist anti-Māori government ever to come to power”.
“Accurate,” he said.
Ferris won Te Tai Tonga for Te Pāti Māori at the 2023 election, unseating Labour’s Rino Tirikatene. It is the country’s largest electorate by area and covers the whole South Island, Wellington, Rakiura Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands.
He was expelled from the party in November last year, after months of public infighting over its leadership and direction. With the general election next month, Ferris was now contesting his electorate without a party behind him.
Ferris also appeared to retreat from last year’s social media post objecting to non-Māori campaigning in Māori electorates, which were criticised as racist.
Pressed by Tame, he said: “I think that it’s OK.”
But he maintained a claim that his objection had been to Labour and the main parties using “ethnic New Zealand to diminish Māori rights”.
Ferris confirmed he and Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who was also expelled from Te Pāti Māori, would keep caucusing together if both returned to Parliament.
Kapa-Kingi took Te Tai Tokerau from Labour’s Kelvin Davis in 2023.
Both Kapa-Kingi and Ferris were expelled after months of public infighting that exposed deep rifts within Te Pāti Māori. Kapa-Kingi was expelled from Te Pāti Māori alongside Ferris last November, but the High Court later ruled her expulsion unlawful.
Ferris said the “way forward” for the Māori seats was “for them to all act independently”, while coming together to “champion issues for te iwi Māori”.
“If I look around at the moment, I don’t see policies for Hauraki Waikato on any table. I don't see policies for Te Tairāwhiti or for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti on the table," he said.
"But I do see policies for Te Tai Tokerau and for Te Tai Tonga on the table. That sort of party mantle just tends to diffuse that clear and explicit reo o te rohe, which I think people deserve."
Ferris put his split from the party down to "a parting of values".
He said the leadership had been reluctant to “sit down and have the kōrero that was required”. He denied he had ever planned to challenge co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
For the full interview, watch the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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