Labour's Toxic Friendship

When Your Aspiring Partner Accuses You of Genocide

Imagine if somebody repeatedly accused you of genocide. Would you want them in government with you? Would you be offended at the suggestion? Or would you tacitly concede the high ground to them?

For Chris Hipkins and Labour, this isn't a thought experiment.

The pattern was established in October 2021, when Te Pāti Māori first crossed what should be a serious line. As COVID-19 cases rose among Māori communities, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer didn't just criticise the government's pandemic response. She accused it of genocide.

“If the government is prepared to open the borders as soon as our country is 90% vaccinated, they are willingly holding Māori up to be the sacrificial lambs,” the Guardian reports her saying. “It is a modern form [of] genocide.”

When asked for a response, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern offered the limpest possible disagreement: “I disagree with that.”

As far seems to be reported, there was no demand for retraction. No righteous anger. No explanation of why such language was inappropriate in a democracy where political opponents aren't typically accused of mass murder.

Criticism of Labour was justified

Te Pāti Māori had legitimate grounds to criticize the government's pandemic response regarding Māori communities. Māori faced significantly higher hospitalisation and death rates from COVID-19, experienced barriers to healthcare access and were underrepresented in early vaccination efforts.

But characterising these policy failures as "genocide" isa catastrophic misuse of language.

The government's pandemic response, however flawed or inadequate in addressing Māori health disparities, was designed to protect all New Zealanders from a deadly virus. The aim was not to harm or destroy any group. By reaching for such extreme terminology, Te Pāti Māori not only trivialised actual genocides throughout history but also made it easier for critics to dismiss their valid concerns about health equity as hyperbolic rhetoric.

The distance between the government's response is inadequate for Māori communities and we are seeing genocide against Māori is not just vast, it's the difference between authentic political criticism and inflammatory accusation that poisons the discourse.

Which calls for more than: “I disagree with that.”