"When Colonial Puppets Attack Their Own People" - 25 June 2025

Kia ora koutou katoa - Greetings to you all.

Shane Jones has once again demonstrated his role as a willing servant of white supremacist interests, this time attacking Whānau Ora for the audacious crime of encouraging Māori to participate in democracy. His venomous assault on a campaign urging Māori electoral enrollment reveals the deep colonial programming that drives NZ First's anti-Māori agenda. This essay exposes how Jones' rhetoric employs classic far-right talking points to undermine Māori self-determination while serving his Pākehā political masters.

Understanding Whānau Ora and Māori Electoral Participation

Whānau Ora represents a revolutionary approach to Māori wellbeing, grounded in our values of whānaungatanga, manaakitanga, and rangatiratanga. Established to address systemic inequities through culturally appropriate service delivery, it embodies Māori self-determination in action. The Māori Electoral Roll, created through Te Tiriti guarantees, ensures tangata whenua have dedicated representation in Parliament.

Yet Māori democratic participation faces significant barriers. Over 120,000 Māori of voting age remain unenrolled on any electoral roll1, representing a crisis of democratic exclusion rooted in historical disenfranchisement and ongoing colonization. This systematic exclusion serves colonial interests by limiting Indigenous political power.

The Attack on Democratic Participation

Jones launched his assault by claiming Whānau Ora has been "sadly tainted by the Māori Party" and represents "ideological experiments" using taxpayer money1. He declared that "Kiwis have had a gutsfull of how the Māori Party and Whānau Ora have worked hand in glove quite frankly to polarise and diminish the spirit of unity"1.

This matters because it represents a coordinated attack on Māori institutions by those claiming to represent us. When Māori politicians attack Māori organizations for encouraging Māori political participation, we witness colonization in its most insidious form - the colonized attacking their own people to serve colonial interests.

Dissecting Colonial Rhetoric and White Supremacist Talking Points

The "Unity" Fallacy

Jones' invocation of "unity" represents classic assimilationist propaganda. This rhetoric demands Māori abandon distinct identity and interests to serve a mythical national unity that has never included us as equals. As Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith argues in "Decolonizing Methodologies", calls for unity from colonizing powers consistently mean absorption and elimination of Indigenous difference.

The "polarization" accusation employs the white supremacist tactic of blaming the oppressed for division created by oppression. When Māori assert rights or seek representation, we're accused of being divisive - yet the division stems from colonial structures denying our tino rangatiratanga.

Weaponizing Taxpayer Rhetoric

Jones' claim about "taxpayer money" for "ideological experiments" echoes far-right welfare scapegoating that portrays Māori as undeserving recipients of public funds. This ignores that Whānau Ora emerged from Crown acknowledgment of systemic failures harming Māori communities.

The Treasury's own Social Cost-Benefit Analysis framework demonstrates programs like Whānau Ora deliver significant economic returns through improved health, education, and employment outcomes. Calling evidence-based Indigenous service delivery "ideological experiments" reveals the colonial mindset that views Māori wellbeing as optional.

The Māori Politician as Colonial Tool

Jones' position as a Māori person attacking Māori institutions serves white supremacy perfectly. Colonial systems have always employed Indigenous collaborators to legitimize oppression - what Frantz Fanon identified in "The Wretched of the Earth" as the "native intellectual" serving colonial interests against their own people.

NZ First's entire political strategy depends on this dynamic. Winston Peters and Shane Jones provide Māori faces for anti-Māori policies, allowing the party to claim Indigenous legitimacy while advancing white supremacist agendas. Their attacks on co-governance, Te Reo Māori, and now democratic participation follow identical patterns used by colonial administrations globally.

Democratic Participation as Threat to White Power

The viciousness of Jones' attack reveals white supremacist fear of Māori political engagement. Merepeka Raukawa-Tait correctly noted that "Māori issues never come to the fore in the mainstream parties"1 - which explains why encouraging Māori Roll enrollment threatens the status quo.

Increased Māori political participation challenges the comfortable arrangement where mainstream parties can ignore tangata whenua concerns. As Professor Moana Jackson observed in his analysis of constitutional arrangements, New Zealand's democracy has always been structured to minimize rather than maximize Indigenous political power.

The Intersectional Assault on Indigenous Rights

Jones' rhetoric intersects with broader neoliberal and white supremacist campaigns targeting Indigenous peoples globally. The Fraser Institute's attacks on First Nations governance in Canada, Australian Liberal Party assaults on Aboriginal Land Rights, and Republican attacks on Native American voting rights in the United States all employ identical language about "taxpayer funds," "political interference," and "divisive identity politics."

This represents coordinated white supremacist strategy recognizing that Indigenous political power threatens colonial economic arrangements. When tangata whenua organize politically, we challenge the extraction of wealth from our territories and the exploitation of our people.

Broader Implications for Tino Rangatiratanga

Jones' attack signals escalating assaults on Māori self-determination under this Government. Having attacked co-governance arrangements, Te Reo Māori requirements, and Treaty obligations, they now target our democratic participation itself.

This connects to international Indigenous experiences where colonial states systematically undermine Native political power. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights has repeatedly documented how states use legal and political mechanisms to fragment Indigenous communities and prevent collective action.

The assault on Whānau Ora represents broader colonial strategy to individualize Indigenous people, breaking collective structures that enable resistance to ongoing colonization. When Māori organize through our own institutions for our own wellbeing, we demonstrate alternatives to colonial control - which explains the vicious response from colonial politicians like Jones.

Call to Action

Shane Jones' attack on Whānau Ora's voter enrollment campaign exposes the colonial puppet show that is NZ First. His rhetoric employs white supremacist talking points about unity, taxpayer funds, and political interference to undermine Māori democratic participation and self-determination.

We must recognize these attacks as part of systematic efforts to maintain white supremacist control over Aotearoa's political system. The solution lies in supporting Māori institutions like Whānau Ora, increasing our political participation, and building collective power to advance tino rangatiratanga.

Our tīpuna secured the Māori Roll through decades of struggle against colonial disenfranchisement. We dishonor their sacrifice by accepting Jones' colonial propaganda designed to keep us politically powerless. Get on the Māori Roll, support Māori organizations, and reject the colonial puppets who attack their own people to serve white supremacist masters.

For readers who find value in exposing these colonial dynamics, please consider a koha to support this mahi: HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000. The MGL understands these tough economic times for whānau so please only contribute if you have capacity and wish to do so.

Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.

Ivor Jones
The Māori Green Lantern

1. https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/2123776/6c6cf754-199d-422c-9a2e-60a98716a2fe/NZ-First-s-Shane-Jones-criticises-Whanau-Ora-ad-encouraging-enrolment-to-Maori-Roll-_-RNZ-News.PDF
2. https://pplx-res.cloudinary.com/image/private/user_uploads/2123776/c5f6a7b3-8001-4686-8d17-4e05c51d7c07/Screenshot_20250625_153751_Brave.jpg
3. https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/collection_cf06d657-2c2b-4e68-8735-48f3c10166bd/8e9b17f7-604e-4009-9ec6-abbe1fd2c989/Perspective-with-Heather-du-Plessis-Allan_-This-Government-s-all-talk-bugger-all-action.PDF