Nick Mills: Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke has dissapointed me
- Publish Date
- Tue, 30 Jun 2026, 12:14pm
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EDITORIAL: Now for me one of the biggest problems facing politics today isn't the just the economy, it's not just crime, it's not just health, it's not even just the cost of living, which are all hugely important.
But it’s one word: trust.
Who do we trust in politics?
Do we actually believe what politicians tell us anymore?
Because if we don't, then don’t we have a real problem?
This latest story involving Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke has genuinely disappointed me.
Not because she's from Te Pāti Māori. Not because she's young. Actually, because she represented something different.
She arrived in Parliament as one of the new generation.
Young, energetic, hugely popular on social media, someone many people thought could genuinely inspire young Māori to get involved in politics.
Whether you agreed with her politics or not, there was a sense that she could become a powerful voice for her people, young people.
That's why this matters.
Stuff has now questioned a series of social media posts where Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke appeared to claim credit for work that ministers say she wasn't involved in.
The latest involves extending free breast screening from age 69 to 74.
The policy was promised before the 2023 election by then National health spokesperson Shane Reti, funded in the 2024 Budget and is now being rolled out.
Yet Maipi-Clarke posted that she had been "supporting the minister" and described it as an announcement she'd been working on since last year.
After questions were raised, the wording of that post has suddenly changed.
And this one really stings for me.
I've known a number of Māori women, people very close to me, who've battled breast cancer.
So, when a young Māori wāhine appears to be claiming a significant role in something so important for her own people, if that claim isn't accurate, that's incredibly disappointing.
For me breast cancer is too serious to become part of anyone's political image.
But it's not just this.
Last week another social media post was deleted after questions were raised about claims she'd spent 65 percent of her time advocating for young people in prisons and youth justice facilities.
According to the article, the office of the Corrections Minister said she had visited one prison once since becoming an MP, while the Children's Minister said she had never visited, or even asked to visit, an Oranga Tamariki youth justice facility.
Those are enormous differences between what people were led to believe, what we were told and what ministers say actually happened.
Every politician likes to put their best foot forward. Every politician celebrates wins.
But here’s the line.
If you supported a policy, say you supported it.
If you campaigned for a policy, say you campaigned for it.
If you delivered it, then by all means take the credit.
But don't leave thousands of followers believing you've done work you may, or probably have not done.
Social media is where many New Zealanders, me included now get their political information. Watch, study and keep in their minds.
That means politicians have an even greater responsibility to get it right. Even greater responsibility to tell the damn truth.
Because if we can't trust what our elected representatives are telling us online, then what exactly are we supposed to believe?
Politics doesn't need more spin.
It needs more honesty.
And I think New Zealanders deserve exactly that.
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