NZ First leader Winston Peters Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says he cannot understand why his latest comments on Māori not being indigenous are being contested.
At a public meeting in Nelson on Sunday he made these comments, as reported by Stuff: "Here's the rub if you are Māori. We're not indigenous.
"We come from Hawai-iki. Where's our Hawai-iki? We think it is in the Cook Islands. We think it's in Rarotonga ... but we're not from here. And you go back 5000 years, we came with our DNA from China. Not like 55,000 years in Australia."
Asked on Morning Report why he had made those comments he responded because it was a fact and he could not understand why it had become a political controversy.
Leaders of the National, Labour and ACT parties have all criticised Peters' speech.
When he was questioned whether his comments would embolden those who were anti-Māori he responded he was not worried about that and accused the mainstream media of running "a separatist apartheid agenda" on the subject.
"We all know we've got DNA that comes all the way across the Pacific and you can trace it."
He said his own iwi was Atawhai (people of the sea) and they knew their whakapapa, their narrative and where they came from.
"All the iwi have that as well."
He said when he first visited the Cook Islands he was greeted by a senior person with: "Welcome home".
"It was a kind lovely gesture and it was brilliant because we know where we came from and when they came here we called them Cook Island Māori."
Peters referred to two prominent Māori leaders, the late Sir Peter Buck and the late Sir Apirana Ngata, both of whom shared his beliefs, he said.
He rejected wider definitions that included people who had arrived in a country before pre-colonial societies and considered themselves distinct from other sections of society.
"We all know we've got DNA that comes all the way across the Pacific and you can trace it" - NZ First leader Winston Peters
Asked about customary rights regarding fishing he recalled how he worked with Helen Clark and Michael Cullen, the prime minister and deputy prime minister at the time, to get the Foreshore and Seabed Act passed in 2004, however, seven years later it was repealed.
The act declared that the land in question was owned by the Crown. Māori could, however, apply for "guardianship" of certain areas. At the time the law was highly controversial.
Regarding ACT leader David Seymour's suggestion it might enter into a confidence-only arrangement with National if it could not get enough of its policies made part of a new government's programme, Peters said it would be "a tragic situation".
He said New Zealanders wanted a change of government and they wanted it to be much better.
"They want adults in the room ... This is a tragedy - the New Zealand people deserve far better."
He said it was unrealistic to have a government operating in the kind of way ACT was proposing.
"I've got no time for this kind of caper."
In the latest Newshub Reid-Research poll, released on Monday night, NZ First was on 4.6 percent, up 0.5 percent from the previous poll. Other polls have also shown NZ First hovering close to the 5 percent threshold that would be enough to have MPs.
Peters has avoided saying whether he would support a Labour or National government outside of a coalition.
However, late last month Labour leader Chris Hipkins called NZ First a "force for instability and chaos", ruling out any formal working arrangement post-election.
National has not ruled out working with NZ First in a formal arrangement, but its other likely coalition partner ACT has, if NZ First MPs are given Cabinet positions. NZ First has not ruled out working with National.