David Seymour just told the truth

And the race-baiting media can’t handle it

ACT leader David Seymour has once again found himself in the firing line, this time for saying something many New Zealanders quietly agree with.

In a post-Budget interview this week, Seymour was asked by Whakaata Māori’s Māni Dunlop for his response to Labour’s claim that $1 billion in “Māori funding” had been cut. His reply was unapologetic.

“There’s no such thing as Māori funding. There’s funding for New Zealanders,” he said. “I’m getting really tired of people trying to racially profile us, put us in categories based on our ancestry or whakapapa, and then try and tag the budget funding for that. It’s just got to stop.”

Predictably, critics pounced. Media headlines implied Seymour had “attacked Māori,” while some political commentators branded him divisive. But these accusations miss the point entirely.

Seymour, who is himself of Ngāpuhi descent, wasn’t criticising Māori people. He was criticising a political and bureaucratic culture that increasingly treats ethnicity as the primary lens through which to view policy and funding decisions.

Asked whether he opposed funding specifically for Māori, Seymour doubled down. “I’m against any kind of race-based targeting of funding,” he said. “I’m opposed to people who want to put all their emphasis on 0.1 per cent of human DNA that’s different from each other, and ignore the 99.9 per cent that unites us.”

It was a firm response. Perhaps too firm for some snowflakes in the press gallery, who tried to push him further by asking whether his opposition extended to Pasifika funding. His answer? “Well, I think you can work that out, yeah.”

Public funding should be based on need, not ethnicity.

This debate is not new. For years, New Zealanders have been grappling with the question of how best to address historic inequities without embedding permanent divisions into our political structures. It is possible, and essential, to address disadvantage without institutionalising racial separation.

That is what Seymour is arguing for. He is not denying that disparities exist, or that targeted interventions may sometimes be needed. What he is pushing back against is the reflexive assumption that race should be the default organising principle in government policy.

And he is right to do so.

The left’s backlash to Seymour’s comments is emblematic of a broader problem. Increasingly, public discourse in New Zealand is shaped not by honest debate but by fear of causing offence. Anyone who questions the wisdom of race-based funding is immediately cast as being anti-Māori, regardless of the substance of their argument.

This is a dangerous trajectory. It not only chills democratic discussion, it also erodes the very idea of equality before the law. New Zealand cannot move forward as a united country if we are constantly being told we are separate.

The path to unity is not through more race-based policy. It is through a renewed focus on common values, shared citizenship, and fairness for all. That means recognising need where it exists, among Māori, Pasifika, Pākehā, or anyone else, and responding to it with integrity rather than ideology.

David Seymour didn’t say anything hateful. He said something important and something worth listening to. It is time we stopped letting outrage drown out reason and defund the media.