Come November 7th, South Island voters on the Māori roll (and Wellington) will vote for their MP to represent Te Tai Tonga, Aotearoa’s largest electorate. Critic Te Ārohi sat down with Mananui Ramsden, the labour candidate eyeing up the seat this election cycle.
In 2023, six of the seven Māori seats, including Te Tai Tonga, threw out their incumbent Labour MPs, electing instead representatives from Te Pāti Māori. Labour are gunning to win back those voters this election, and win all seven Māori seats. They have a steep hill to climb. A recent Whakaata Māori poll shows that while Māori as a whole prefer Labour (31%), those on the Māori roll prefer Te Pāti Māori (29%). 60% of under-30 Māori believe Te Pāti Māori better understands Māori aspirations.
Mananui Ramsden is Labour's candidate in Te Tai Tonga. Often wearing a flat cap among the suits, he describes himself as "working class" and pitches himself as being all about "raw-boned effort." Mananui was a young chairperson of his hapū, Ngāti Huikai of Koukourarata, and later served in Treaty partnership roles around the environment. He reached out to Critic for a yarn, and says Māori are "hungry for change." But for tauira Māori, does Mananui Ramsden satiate that appetite?
Better Outcomes For Māori
Mananui Ramsden said the "ridiculously" key problem in the rohe was unemployment. Māori, he said, "have the highest rate of unemployment – other than our disabled whānau," of whom only 36.4% are employed. "After that, it's rangatahi Māori." 28.4% of rangatahi Māori aged 20-24 are not in employment, education, or training.
So what would Labour do about it? Trades training, he says. The policy, hot off the press when we spoke to him – involves spending $21 million a year on grants that Māori providers can contest, to deliver trades training. Mananui says, "I know a lot of people are scoffing at that," but throws "E hika mā, kei te hē katoa," right back at them. "I am a product of Māori trade training. And if it wasn't for Māori trades training entering at a time when I was living in an extreme deficit, I wouldn't have been able to claw myself out of poverty."
He added the $1,000 grant for the upfront cost of tools for new apprentices, part of Labour's Apprenticeship Boost policy. Soon he was gushing about how he "can build my own houses," and paid tribute to those who got him there. "[People] just want to be able to be seen in a light where someone looks at them and I go, I believe in you, and I'm prepared to walk with you on this journey through the ups and downs."
Mananui will deliver by showing up. "Kanohi kitea" is the theme of his campaign, because "Being present in the takiwā really helps."
For tauira Māori, that might seem a pretty lowball offer. Critic Te Ārohi had noticed that, from debates to interviews to reels, Mananui usually leads with something along the lines of "I will show up." Whoever wins Te Tai Tonga will represent the electorate in Parliament, so "showing up" is step one. But, if an election campaign is like a job interview, and Mananui keeps saying "I will show up to work", what was he trying to say about the man who currently has the job?
Asked if the incumbent MP for Te Tai Tonga (Tākuta Ferris) was showing up in the community, he said, on record for the first time: "No. That's a no. That's a no. [That’s] with all due respect – attack the bull, not the person – that is the thing that our people talk about. [But] don't shoot the messenger.”
Tākuta Ferris is Mananui's cousin. Ferris swept Te Tai Tonga as Te Pāti Māori's candidate, winning every polling booth at the University of Otago and Polytechnic. Now, he is recontesting Te Tai Tonga as an independent, having been expelled from the party last November. Critic Te Ārohi reached out to Tākuta Ferris for a response to Mananui's take, and he responded.
“Being the elected representative of the people of Te Tai Tonga is my continued privilege and honour. We have connected with our whānau across the breadth and width of our massive electorate and have held the line against an onslaught of legislation that this anti-Māori, anti-Te Tiriti government has thrown our way,” he told Critic.
“We have raised the understanding of Te Tiriti online, and demystified legislation, speaking the truth of the people of Te Tai Tonga directly into that house. I stand by our record over the last few years, and will continue to stand with our people of Te Tai Tonga.”
Te Pāti Māori candidate is Lisa Marie Murch, who represented her party at OUSA's leaders debate, where she broke the news of her party's Education and Training policy to tauira. The policy includes establishing a Māori Education Authority and writing off the cost-of-living component of student loans, among other items. Te Pāti Māori's popularity peaked during the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti (March for the Treaty) before internal drama saw two MPs leave the party. At the time of publication, they poll around 1%.
Te Pāti Māori are campaigning to elect Te Pāti Māori constituency MPs, while asking voters to send their party votes elsewhere. This strategy would, if successful, add an extra seven seats to the left-wing bloc, which they argue is the only way to change the government. Besides, they say, most of their Labour and Green challengers will get elected on their party lists, and the tangata whenua will get two-in-one representation.
Not so in Te Tai Tonga. Mananui asked not to be on Labour's party list, because he believes the "mana sits with the community," and he only wants to go to Parliament with their direct mandate. To critics, he's previously said: "No-one has dibs on a seat." He's none too pleased with the message he feels Te Pāti Māori's strategy is sending.
"It's just a strategy," he says – it might not work. And "It's implying that their Māori are better than our Māori," which online commentary has picked up. Green candidate Tania Waikato has aired similar frustrations, and says the word “kūpapa” is being thrown about.
What he says to the strategy is, "I'm worthy," and "I don't have to act, look or behave any other way than myself. I've [a] proven track record in Māori leadership." And Mananui told Critic that if "their Māori" are the only Māori "worthy" of being MP, they should "tell that to my iwi. Go back to my pā and tell my kaumātua who have sent me here."
Talking Te Tiriti
Asked what he would accomplish if he could snap anything into existence, Mananui was quickly talking Te Tiriti. Specifically, “It’s about putting Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the place that it deserves to be, so that it’s tapu.” Mananui is frustrated with Crown-Māori relations, and the ACT Party's policy to abolish the Waitangi Tribunal, which Labour has promised to preserve, and which he describes as "perfect the way it is."
Mananui also touched on co-governance, another hot button issue in the last Parliamentary term. "Co-governance has become a swear word," Mananui said firmly. "This isn't England."
He says co-governance is Māori sharing their "rakatirataka" with the Crown through Te Tiriti, "whether people like it or not." But Mananui was clearly frustrated at what he called "a deliberate drive" to "demonise" it. "So what would I say about co-governance? I'd say grow up. Grow up, New Zealand."
Critic asked Mananui which current or proposed policy he disliked most, and his head was in his hands. Good job us! "It's been traumatic," says Mananui. But his mind is on society, not a single piece of legislation. "I think the greatest damage has been done within our society. The deliberate tearing apart of communities that are bound by blood." He went on to explain that he was with Labour precisely because of "kotahitanga," because "I would love to go this shinier [and] sexier route, right, but the hardest job is to bind everyone together." Answering our question, he said, "everything to do with the erasure of my existence."
Final Words From Mananui
Mananui wants to leave a mark on Te Tai Tonga, so that his daughters “don’t have to put up with what we’re currently going through." We wanted to know what he'd say to tauira Māori, who might be disheartened with politics and consider not exercising their vote. "If you aren't already, educate yourself about what's at stake,” he says. He argues another 3 years for the coalition would "erase our rights and interests. We will be rendered very low.”
The Labour Party won over 50% of the Te Tai Tonga party vote in 2017 and 2020, before burning 22% of their support in 2023. To tauira Māori, he says that a sustained Māori voice in power isn't unattainable. "We saw that at the last Labour government, with the Treaty clauses and Te Mana o te Wai." An "oligarchic capitalist system" is undermining that, according to him, but "Labour is poised" to deliver. This is as close to outright saying, "Vote Labour," as he'll get.
Mananui Ramsen's final words to our readership: "You have the authority to get this done. And it's an absolute privilege to be here." Tauira must enrol to vote by 25 October if they want to vote in the 7 November election.
