This government has since 2020 been following a deliberate strategy of Divide and Conquer, Divide and Rule by stirring up racial disharmony.
But what they really think of ordinary Maori was demonstrated by Jacinda Cabinet Minister Michael Wood when he infamously described those protesting outside Parliament in February 2022 in Freedom Village as “a River of Filth” — video. None of his colleagues remonstrated about that description.
And how many of the protestors were ordinary Maori? —

Yep, He Puapua is about benefiting the top 1% Maori Ruling Class with powerful government positions in bureaucracies and enterprises, and that’s all.

Ordinary Maori who publicly protest this government’s nefarious Globalist agenda like Carlene Louise, Donna Pokere-Phillips, Billy Te Kahika and many others get deplatformed — and in the last case, a 4-month jail term for protesting against the Jacinda government outside its TVNZ propagandists in August 2021.

The Labour Party message to Maori is clear: “say things in support of us and we’ll bestow power and riches upon you, speak against that agenda and we’ll punish you.”
This government’s pretend concern for Maori well-being is Fake and plenty of Maori have no time for them.

The swimming pool analogy is superb and captures more effectively the situation than a paragraph of text.
I always go back to why was the jab so aggressively pushed for Maori with extra funding and inducements from their own people in positions of influence.
The Maori elite still think there’s a place on the ark for them, but more likely they’ll end up standing on chairs which will then be kicked out from under them.