It’s official: the most pressing crisis in New Zealand, according to Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and the Greens’ Benjamin “Bussy Boy” Doyle, is the rearrangement of words on our passports.
Yes—while the rest of us worry about inflation, crime, and the horrifyingly regular abuse and murder of children in this country (often Māori children, tragically), Debbie and Ben are frothing over a no-cost, routine formatting tweak.
To quote Debbie, the passport change is an “erosion of Te Tiriti partnership.” And Bussy-Boy? He called it “deeply disrespectful” and demanded a reversal of what is essentially graphic design housekeeping. Neither seem to grasp that no language is being removed, nothing “colonial” is being reimposed, and no actual Māori person is materially affected in the slightest. But hey, it fits the outrage-of-the-week narrative, and that’s what really counts.
What doesn’t seem to hit their radar? Māori children being beaten to death in their own homes. The sexual abuse of tamariki, often by people in their own whānau. Where is the fiery press release then? Where is the public outrage, the cries of “violence,” the calls for systemic change?
It’s telling, really. For $200,000+ a year, these MPs will whip themselves into righteous rage over font placement—but not over the brutal deaths of the very children they claim to represent.
It’s good to know what they value. They’ll fight tooth and nail for symbolic posturing—but when it comes to real, heartbreaking, fixable tragedy? Nothing. Debbie and Bussy-Boy should be ashamed of themselves.
So remember this next time they wave the banner of “justice”: they may speak loudly, but they choose their battles very, very carefully. And it’s not our most vulnerable who top their list.
eN-Zed 