In his maiden speech to parliament in 2020, te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi told his fellow MPs:
You know what it feels like to have a pebble in your shoe? That will be my job here. A constant, annoying to those holding onto the colonial ways, a reminder and change agent for the recognition of our kahu Māori.
Three years later, most would agree that he and fellow co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have been just that – visible, critical, combative, prepared to be controversial.
