Te Pāti Māori MP for Tāmaki Makaurau, Oriini Kaipara, has delivered a strong reply to the Prime Minister’s Statement in Parliament, saying the Government’s claims of “progress and prosperity” are disconnected from the lived reality of Māori and thousands of whānau facing homelessness and housing insecurity.

“The Prime Minister painted a picture of a stronger Aotearoa. For Māori, especially in Tāmaki Makaurau, that picture is fiction. Mum would say it’s all kaka,” Ms Kaipara said.

Ms Kaipara criticised what she described as two years of anti-Māori and anti-Tiriti policies that have stripped away rights, undermined te reo and tikanga Māori, and worsened the housing crisis.

“What’s despicable is that this Government is comfortable pushing whānau Māori deeper into crisis. Nowhere is that crisis more visible or more brutal than in housing,” she said.

The Prime Minister claimed the Government is making “good progress” on housing. Ms Kaipara rejected that assertion.

“Giving $3 billion in tax cuts to landlords is not progress. Making it harder to access emergency housing is not progress. Selling homes to overseas buyers for holiday houses is not progress. The only progress these policies make is toward homelessness.”

Ms Kaipara said the housing crisis represents one of the greatest modern breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

“The greatest breach of Te Tiriti is when tangata whenua have no whenua and no home.”

She highlighted alarming homelessness statistics, noting that more than 110,000 people in Aotearoa are currently without stable housing.

“More than half of them are rangatahi - our future leaders  -  sleeping on the streets. A third are wāhine Māori, many of them pregnant or new mothers. Service providers are overwhelmed, and kaupapa Māori services like Te Whare Hinatore at Auckland City Mission are being forced to turn whānau away.”

Ms Kaipara said the crisis could be ended immediately with political courage.

“There are 112,000 empty houses across this country - ghost houses, Whare Kēhua. Why not house our people first? That is not throwing away money. That is securing our future.”

She pointed to her recently introduced Members’ Bill to end youth homelessness as a practical solution.

“My bill focuses on the cure, not the crisis. It is rangatahi-led, evidence-based, and transformational. That is what real progress looks like.”

Ms Kaipara said real leadership would require embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi across all laws, prioritising people over profit, and protecting Papatūānuku.

“That is the time Prime Ministers should celebrate. But that time is not today.”

Speaking on behalf of Tāmaki Makaurau and as Te Pāti Māori’s housing spokesperson, Ms Kaipara issued a clear message to the Government:

“We will not accept any more broken promises.

We will not accept the erosion of our rights.

We will not accept a future where Māori and the people of Aotearoa are left behind in our own whenua.”

“Our people deserve better.

Tāmaki Makaurau deserves better.

Aotearoa deserves better.”

Alongside Kaipara’s Members’ bill, Te Pāti Māori’s housing policy includes:

• Building 2000 houses on papakāinga 
• Radically increasing public housing investment 
• Allocating 50% of new social housing builds to whānau Māori who make up 50% of the social housing waitlist 
• Stopping all sales of freehold land to offshore foreign interests 
• Taxing Property Investors 
• Supporting renters through universal rent control, and repealing no cause evictions