Act Leader David Seymour has come out swinging against critics calling him a racist and a “useless Māori”.

In an interview with TV broadcaster Moana Maniapoto, Seymour said he had no problem with people not liking him, but they should at least listen to his message.

Maniapoto said no one doubts Seymour’s Ngapuhi whakapapa, but wondered why he was not a stronger advocate for Māori.

“It’s a real shame that they think Te Ao Māori is too narrow for the views that I expound, which are based on a free society, which I think is the best place for people to thrive and prosper over time.

“Now they may think that you can’t be Māori and have those views, or you are a useless Māori, or not an advocate for Māori, but I would say to them that their disagreement is not with my Māoriness but with my views.

“If they spent more time on my views and not trying to attack my identity of whether I am good or bad, then they might actually learn something.”

Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson described Seymour as a “useless Māori”.

Seymour said: “I consider myself a very useful Māori and that was very mean of Willie”.

Maniapoto told Seymour she had just come back from her marae where people think Seymour is “dangerous” and “doesn’t get it”.

“There’s a lot of people who say I do get it, and the concerns that I’m expressing are authentic concerns that any country in New Zealand’s position would have,” Seymour said on Te Ao with Moana.

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“What I think is dangerous is the idea, we are talking past each other and no longer committed to some old values which have got New Zealand as far as it’s come.”

Seymour said he wants a prosperous Aotearoa for all New Zealanders based on need - not heritage.

“We have democracy and human rights on the one hand and this idea of a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa with Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti on the other and it is incompatible,” Seymour said.

“If anyone says it dangerous or dog whistling to discuss that then I would put it back to them that they are endangering New Zealand by suppressing that discussion.

Act Leader David Seymour and broadcaster Moana Maniapoto. Photo / Te Ao with Moana

“Apartheid is a system where people have a different set of political rights based on their ancestry, which happened in South Africa to a much more dramatic extent.”

Seymour said he uses terms like ethnostate and apartheid when calling out the government’s co-governance plans because “unfortunately they are accurate.

“Ethnostate is a state where your citizenship or your rights are connected with your whakapapa, your ancestry and we have a government that is formalising that into law,” he said.

Seymour questioned how having tangata whenua sitting around a governance table was going to help feed a hungry Māori child.

“How is one more kid who is hungry going to school with a full tummy because a distant relative is sitting around a co-governance table?,” Seymour asked.

He said reality is, Europeans brought some good and bad things with them to New Zealand.

“Do you really think that everything Europeans bought to New Zealand was bad or would it be more honest to say, that there have been good and bad on both sides and the real question is how do we go forward,” he said.

David Seymour said people could learn something if they listened to what he said and not attacked his identity. Photo / Te Ao with Moana

“I support kohanga reo, I support Whānau Ora, I support all the initiatives that these social service providers deliver.”

He said a bottom line for him would be to get rid of the newly formed Māori Health Authority.

“I represent an electorate that has 17 per cent Chinese and I have constituents say to me they don’t like the healthcare system because it discriminates against Chinese,’ Seymour said.

“So why don’t we have a Chinese Health Authority, a Pacific Health Authority? How can we get to a point where we can be so contemptuous to a group of New Zealanders because they are Chinese?”