It’s good to see Kelvin Davis has apologised.  

He called ACT’s MP Karen Chhour to apologise for essentially saying she wasn’t Māori enough . She’s accepted the apology. 

Yesterday in the house, he said she was “looking at the world from a vanilla lens”

And when he was challenged on it later, he didn’t realise. He doubled down and said “She does whakapapa to Māori, but she was raised in a Pākehā world. “ 

An apology is a good start.

But I reckon Jacinda Ardern might need to have a chat to her Māori caucus about knocking this stuff off.  Because this is not the first time that a senior Māori minister in the Labour Party has said something like this.

The last one was Willie Jackson back in May who basically did the same thing to David Seymour - who whakapapas to ngapuhi - calling him a “useless Māori.”

Back in 2010 he said Maori on TV - like Mike Mcroberts specifically - were just Māori faces. 

The reason the PM might need to knock this on its head is because there’s a risk this happens again.  It’s not a mistake from these MPs.  I think it's an insight into what they really believe.

There is a way of thinking among some adherents to identity politics predominantly, if not exclusively, people on the left that you are not really Māori or black or a woman or queer. If you don’t furiously agree with the groupthink that you’re supposed to if you’re Māori or black or a woman or queer. 

Take a look at what’s just happened in the UK this week, and again, it’s a Labour MP doing this.

Rupa Huq has called Kwasi Kwarteng - the UK’s first ever black chancellor - "superficially black" because "If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn't know he's black." 

She’s had to apologise and been suspended from the Labour party. 

Remember Peter Thiel, the tech entrepreneur who is gay?

He was told by an academic he was “not a gay man” because he backed Donald Trump. 

This stuff is sad because it judges people for their identity, not their policies and delivery and actions and character.

It is the exact opposite of what we’ve all been raised to do:  Judge people for what they do, not how they look.

I expect this stuff from the Māori party because they’re making a point of being radical and slightly out of line.

But I don’t expect it from our governing party. The Labour party of Savage and Lange and Helen Clark 

Here’s sincerely hoping they’ve learned their lesson and don’t do it again. 

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