Te Pāti Māori's Takutai Kemp

Recently, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Winston Peters, met with his US counterpart; the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

Despite this meeting, not much is known about the details of what was discussed, however, the two did discuss tariffs, which Aotearoa may be affected by unless the country is exempt from the current upcoming agricultural tariffs.

For our weekly catchup with Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to her about Peters and Rubio’s meeting, and what the party thinks of this meeting between the two politicians.

They also spoke about the most recent Ipsos Issues Monitor Survey and Israel’s recent aggression against Gaza.

The coalition government’s free school lunch programme has faced significant criticism from various groups and individuals. 

This follows the remodelling of the previous programme, the Ka Ora Ka Ako programme, to, in what ACT Party Leader David Seymour says, save taxpayers over $100 million and fix food wastage.

However, this current model has resulted lunches arriving significantly late, plastic having been found melted into food, and students describing the food as “bland,” and looking like “prison food”.

Responding to the criticisms facing the current model of the free school lunch programme, in an interview with Newstalk ZB, Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, says those complaining should “make a Marmite sandwich and put an apple in the bag.”

For our first weekly catch with Te Pāti Māori for the year, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Takutai Kemp about how she is viewing the lunch programme, and her opinions on Luxon’s recent remarks regarding the model.

We also spoke about the Land Transport Management (Time of Use Charging) Amendment Bill first reading in Parliament, and Te Pāti Māori being the only party not to support the Bill, and the changes to free bowel cancer screenings by changing the age from 60 to 58, which would result in scrapping the pilot programme that would have allowed Māori and Pacific people free screenings from age 50.

But first, they started off by asking her about how the party is feeling about the current state of the government’s free school lunch programme.

Last week, the hīkoi mō te tiriti culminated outside Parliament, making this hīkoi one of the largest in the country.

For our weekly catch up with Te Pāti Māori, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Mariameno Kapa-Kingi about the hīkoi and how the party has reacted to the magnitude of this rally.

I also spoke to her about the Treaty Principles Bill passing its first reading in Parliament and the haka in protest of this.

Earlier this month, the Electoral Commission released political parties’ annual financial statements, however, Te Pāti Māori had failed to release theirs.

Since failing to do so, the party has since been referred to the police over the matter, with updates from last week from the police saying they were continuing to assess the matter.

For our weekly catch up, News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Te Pāti Māori’s Takutai Kemp about the party’s lack of a financial statement.

They also discussed Green Party MP, Teanau Tuiono’s Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill passing its first reading with unanimous support from the select committee.

The bill would allow Samoans born between 1924 and 1948 to have reinstated New Zealand citizenship, following a 1982 ruling by the then National government that those born in the previously New Zealand-occupied territory of Western Samoa as non-New Zealand citizens.

Finally, they discussed  21 new te reo Māori names being allocated for sites around the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board area.