NZ Deputy Leader Decries ‘Separatist Hate-Filled’ Speech by Māori Party MP

Winston Peters has condemned a speech by a Māori Party MP that claimed the government intended to ‘exterminate Māori.’

Ministers address hundreds of Maori protesters gathered to demonstrate against what protesters say is the disproportionate number of Maori children taken by social service agencies from their families, outside parliament in Wellington, New Zealand on July 30, 2019. Praveen Menon/Reuters

New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters—and leader of one of the three government coalition parties, New Zealand First—has condemned a speech by a Māori Party MP that accused the government of intending to “exterminate Māori.”

Speaking in the General Debate on May 1, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who represents the Māori electorate of Te Tai Tokerau, began her speech by saying “No matter my words today, the government will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori.”