TONY VAUGHN: Racial Romanticism Is Not Policy: The Cost of Coddling a Myth

David Seymour committed the cardinal sin of contemporary politics - he told the truth! Race-based funding is racist. A statement so obviously true that it ought to be stitched onto the curtains of the Beehive and should be self-evident to anyone with an IQ above room temperature. Yet, predictably, Tama Potaka emerged, starch-shirted and squinting in moral indignation, to denounce Seymour's comments as “unhelpful.” No, Mr Potaka. What is truly unhelpful is the systematic diversion of public funds into a racial fantasy built on grievance economics and revisionist nostalgia.

This fetish for ethnic exceptionalism has become the most expensive fiction in New Zealand’s policy landscape. The central myth - that Māori are uniquely deprived and therefore must be uniquely subsidised - collapses under the slightest statistical scrutiny. But facts, regrettably, are of little use to those whose salaries depend on ignoring them.

The Māori economy now exceeds $70 billion. That is not a typo. Seventy billion dollars, according to BERL. Māori businesses thrive in agriculture, fisheries, energy, tourism, construction - you name it. We are not talking about a struggling underclass. We are talking about a sovereign economic force with the political influence of a Middle Eastern oil bloc. And yet, astonishingly, we are still expected to believe that Māori are victims - infantilised, eternally fragile, and unable to function without a phalanx of publicly funded “navigators,” “equity officers,” and “tikanga consultants” to shepherd them through modernity.

This narrative is insulting, inaccurate, and intolerably expensive.

Consider life expectancy. In 2002, the average Māori lifespan hovered around 68 years. As of 2022, it stands at 74.3. That’s an increase of more than six years in two decades. Māori smoking rates have halved since 2006. Educational attainment among young Māori has risen steadily. Tertiary enrolments are at record highs. And in urban areas, Māori household incomes are now statistically indistinguishable from the Pākehā average.

So where, precisely, was the need for a separate Māori Health Authority?

Te Aka Whai Ora, the government's now-defunct totem to ethno-bureaucracy, was abolished in mid-2024 - not because it had accomplished its mission, but because it had failed to justify its existence. It produced no measurable improvement in health outcomes. What it did produce was a mountain of consultancy invoices, a glossy logo, and a thriving cottage industry of diversity experts billing taxpayers for sermons on “cultural safety.” Meanwhile, hospital waitlists remained unacceptably long. Cancer rates stayed stubbornly high. Suicide prevention? Still a disaster. It was corporatised wokeness in a korowai - and it deserved to be scrapped.

Education? The same circus. Our state schools have become temples of cultural appeasement. “Culturally responsive pedagogy” is the mantra. Kapa haka in the mornings, illiteracy in the afternoons. Māori boys remain at the bottom of every measurable educational metric. Why? Because educational success is driven by family structure, discipline, and ambition - not the Treaty of Waitangi.

Housing? Another farce. We are told that “Māori housing strategies” will solve intergenerational poverty. What this really means is priority access for iwi developers and whānau collectives, usually bypassing merit in favour of whakapapa. The results are predictably dismal - projects bogged in bureaucracy, millions wasted, and the odd successful build trotted out for photo ops. Meanwhile, a Samoan or Tongan family with greater need is told to wait. Wrong surname, wrong century.

Potaka insists this is “targeted based on need.” Rubbish. If it were based on need, it would be colour-blind. It would measure income, health, disability, geography - not tribal lineage. If the state must help, it should do so on the basis of hardship, not heritage.

And then there is crime. Māori make up 51% of our prison population. We are told this is a result of systemic racism. No - it is a result of systemic dysfunction. Intergenerational welfare dependency, fatherlessness, methamphetamine abuse, anti-social youth culture - these are the factors. Not white supremacy. Not colonisation. Not Captain Cook.

Worse still, race-based funding enables this dysfunction. It reinforces dependency. It signals that failure will be rewarded, not rectified. The Māori Party calls this “mana-enhancing.” In the real world, we call it bribery.

None of this is a call to ignore Māori disadvantage. It is a call to address it with honesty, rigour, and standards. The previous model did precisely the opposite. It flattered tribal elites, funded unaccountable bureaucracies, and delivered nothing but resentment and division.

So dismantle the rest.

Now that Te Aka Whai Ora is gone, it’s time to shut down Te Puni Kōkiri, eliminate co-governance, repeal race-based hiring quotas, and abolish the Māori seats entirely. Let the iwi aristocracy, so fond of preaching commercial wisdom, compete on a level playing field in the free market. Let them earn their fortunes without the insulation of state patronage.

This romanticised vision of Māori as an eternally wounded, noble caste is not merely ahistorical. It is politically corrosive. It distorts justice, misallocates resources, and entrenches mediocrity. Tama Potaka is not a moderate. He is the acceptable face of racial separatism. A handsome cipher in a navy-blue suit, offering respectable cover for policies that are, in effect, apartheid with PR spin.

New Zealand must decide: do we believe in equality under the law or cultural exceptionalism? One cannot have both.

Race-based policy is not just unsustainable. It is immoral. And if the National Party had any spine, it would say so.

That, Mr Potaka, is what leadership looks like.

Tony Vaughn a staunch New Zealander who stands for racial equality and one law for all New Zealanders. This post first appeared at Breaking Views