21 Jul 2015

Māori Party in Auckland housing dispute

7:16 am on 21 July 2015

Labour MP for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti Meka Whaitiri is accusing the Māori Party of not doing enough to lobby the Government about the low home-ownership rates of tāngata whenua in Auckland.

Her comments came after Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox criticised Labour's claims about how many offshore Chinese were buying homes in Auckland.

Maori Party MP Marama Fox

Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

Ms Whaitiri said while Ms Fox was trying to shame Labour's Māori MPs over those claims, the Māori Party, which is in partnership with the National-led Government, was doing nothing to address the woeful Māori home ownership rates in Tāmaki Makauaru.

Ms Fox said that Labour's Māori MPs should be whakamā, or embarrased about that.

Ms Whaititi said she was not at all whakamā about it, but what she was embarassed about was that the Māori Party was doing nothing to take the heat out of Auckland's housing market.

She said like National, the Māori Party was just trying to distract people from its own inadequacy to address the Auckland property crisis.

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