"The Corporate Stooge Defends His Far-Right Heroes" - 12 September 2025

Kia ora e te whānau - Matthew Tukaki's Mask Slips.

The timing couldn't be more revealing. Matthew Tukaki, the neoliberal plant masquerading as a Māori advocate at Waatea News, has just shown his true colours in the most spectacular fashion. While simultaneously condemning Takuta Ferris for legitimate concerns about Māori self-determination, Tukaki has posted a glowing tribute to Charlie Kirk - the white supremacist who called Martin Luther King Jr. "awful" and "not a good person" and insisted "we made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s".

Let that hypocrisy sink in for a moment. Tukaki attacks a Māori MP for defending tangata whenua rights, then mourns the death of a racist who said "If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's qualified'" and promoted the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory targeting people of colour.

The Corporate Shill's True Allegiances Exposed

Tukaki's Facebook post about Kirk reveals everything we need to know about where his loyalties truly lie. He writes with obvious admiration about "following Charlie Kirk because I wanted to understand more about the movement and how, so quickly, it rose to prominence." This isn't academic curiosity - this is ideological alignment barely disguised as intellectual exercise.

Kirk was a co-founder of Turning Point USA, documented by multiple sources as having "a culture rife with tension, some of it racial" where one African American staffer was fired on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the organization's national field director texted "I hate black people. End of story".

Yet Tukaki presents Kirk's death as some great tragedy, pontificating about how "violence is completely unacceptable" and "when we disagree we kōrero / talk. We debate." This from the same man who has spent his career attacking authentic Māori voices while providing cover for the very racism Kirk embodied.

The Grotesque Double Standard

The contrast couldn't be starker. When Takuta Ferris raises legitimate concerns about Labour's approach to Māori representation, Tukaki immediately positions himself as the voice of reason, attacking Ferris for "doubling down" on comments that supposedly show "arrogance." But when a documented white supremacist dies - someone who called Black women leaders lacking in "brain processing power" - suddenly Tukaki transforms into a philosopher of non-violence.

This selective outrage exposes Tukaki's true function as a neoliberal asset. He reserves his harshest criticism for Māori who challenge the status quo while extending sympathy and understanding to far-right figures who built careers on demonising indigenous peoples and people of colour.

Kirk regularly promoted false claims about George Floyd, calling him a "scumbag" and spreading debunked narratives about his death. He denied the existence of systemic racism, called white privilege a "racist idea," and vilified critical race theory. These weren't isolated comments - they were core elements of his political brand.

The Neoliberal Playbook in Action

Tukaki's response to Kirk's death follows the classic neoliberal script perfectly. Rather than acknowledging the harm Kirk's rhetoric caused to marginalised communities, Tukaki frames the issue as one of civility and proper debate procedures. He writes about understanding Kirk's "journey as a husband, father and son" while completely ignoring the journey of pain Kirk inflicted on countless families through his racist propaganda.

This is how institutional racism operates in the modern era - not through overt hostility, but through selective empathy and false equivalencies. Tukaki extends humanising understanding to white supremacists while pathologising Māori resistance as dangerous extremism requiring condemnation.

The man who claimed to have held senior UN roles he never actually occupied now positions himself as an authority on peaceful discourse. The same person whose CV contained fabrications serious enough that the NZ Māori Council distanced itself from him now lectures others about respectful dialogue.

The Corporate Media's Perfect Indigenous Voice

This episode perfectly illustrates why Tukaki is so valuable to neoliberal power structures. He provides indigenous legitimacy for positions that serve establishment interests while undermining authentic Māori resistance. When the far-right needs defending, Tukaki appears with measured calls for understanding. When Māori challenge the colonial order, he transforms into a voice of condemnation.

Kirk's organisation was documented as courting "figures openly tied to the far right" including "Nick Fuentes and his white nationalist followers". These weren't accidents - they were strategic alliances in service of white supremacist goals. Yet Tukaki treats Kirk's death as an opportunity to lecture about the importance of civil discourse.

The same week Tukaki attacks Takuta Ferris for defending Māori electoral representation, he mourns a man who repeatedly "framed immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and racial justice advocates as existential threats to 'white Christian America'". The hypocrisy is breathtaking in its audacity.

The Māori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right

The Mask Falls Away

Matthew Tukaki's response to Charlie Kirk's death has finally torn away any remaining pretense about where his true allegiances lie. While posing as a defender of Māori interests, he reserves his harshest criticism for Māori who resist colonial domination and his greatest empathy for white supremacists who built careers demonising indigenous peoples.

This is the face of modern institutional racism - not burning crosses, but corporate-friendly indigenous voices who police their own people while humanising their oppressors. Tukaki's selective outrage reveals him as exactly what we've always said he was - a neoliberal asset deployed to divide and weaken authentic Māori resistance.

The man who fabricated his CV to secure government positions now wants to lecture us about honesty in political discourse. The same person who attacks Māori MPs for defending indigenous rights extends sympathy to documented racists who spent their careers attacking those same rights.

Our people deserve better than this corporate stooge who sells out tangata whenua interests while mourning the death of our enemies. Tukaki's mask has finally slipped completely, revealing the establishment shill he's always been.

Nāku noa, nā Ivor Jones - The Māori Green Lantern

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