Duncan Garner: Stop Calling Everything Racist

Some claims are so overcooked they collapse under their own steam.

Tukoroirangi Morgan says this is the most racist government New Zealand has ever had. Really? The most racist ever? In this country’s history? That is not a serious argument. It is politics dressed up as persecution.

He is entitled to be angry. He is entitled to oppose the Government. He is entitled to fight every Treaty change, every policy shift, every line removed from legislation. That is democracy. Go hard. But calling this Government the most racist in our history is not just wrong, it is lazy

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It also asks us to forget what actually happened in this country.

Morgan was there for the foreshore and seabed fight. He marched against Labour when Helen Clark’s government shut Māori out of the courts. Māori had gone to court. The courts said they had the right to be heard. Labour did not like where that might lead, so Parliament stepped in and slammed the door.

No hearing. No proper test. No day in court.

That was not a policy tweak. That was the state removing a legal pathway from Māori. It fractured Labour’s relationship with Māori and helped give birth to the Māori Party. Morgan knew it then. He said it then. So how has he forgotten it now?

This Government has argued about co-governance. It has pulled back some Treaty references. It has changed some policies. Fine, criticise that. But it has not stripped Māori of the right to go to court. It has not banned te reo. It has not confiscated land. It has not shut down Māori broadcasting, Māori education, Treaty settlements or Te Puni Kōkiri.

In fact, the money is still flowing. Māori broadcasting remains funded. Kura kaupapa remains funded. Te Māngai Pāho remains funded. Māori development funding continues. Te Matatini was protected when other budgets were being squeezed. Taxpayers are helping climate-threatened Māori communities relocate.

That does not sound like the most racist government in New Zealand history. It sounds like a government Morgan does not like.

And that is the problem. We have become addicted to the biggest possible accusation. Every disagreement is racism. Every policy loss is oppression. Every election result is a constitutional crisis. The language is now so inflated it barely means anything.

That should worry Māori most of all, because real racism existed here and still exists in places. The word should be reserved for the moments that deserve it. When it is thrown at everything, it lands on nothing.

Morgan is playing politics. Badly. He knows history better than this.

Oppose the Government. Campaign against it. Vote it out.

But stop pretending 2026 is worse than being locked out of your own day in court. That is not courage. That is memory fade.

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