Debbie Anne Ngarewa-Packer is a New Zealand politician, iwi leader and activist. She is a Member of Parliament and co-leader of Te Pāti Māori alongside Rawiri Waititi, and is the chief executive of the Ngāti Ruanui iwi. She stood for Te Pāti Māori during the 2020 election in the seat of Te Tai Hauāuru. While she failed to win the electorate, she was placed first on Te Pāti Māori list, where she won a list seat once the special votes were counted.
Early life
Ngarewa-Packer grew up in Patea and attended New Plymouth Girls' High School.
Local government
Ngarewa-Packer is a former deputy mayor of South Taranaki. She was elected to the South Taranaki District Council in the 2007 local elections, representing the Pātea ward. She also contested the mayoral position, which was won by Ross Dunlop; after the elections Dunlop selected her as deputy mayor. She had that role until 2010, when she did not seek re-election.
Ngāti Ruanui and local activism
Ngarewa-Packer is chief executive of the Ngāti Ruanui iwi. She has also been the kaiarataki of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui, an organisation that runs healthcare centres in Hāwera and Patea. She has advocated for Māori health and the environment at a grassroots level for many years. In 2004, she rallied more than 250 Taranaki people to join with the foreshore and seabed hīkoi on its way to Wellington.
Ngarewa-Packer campaigned against seabed mining off the Taranaki coast. The Environmental Protection Authority granted a marine discharge consent to mining company Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) in 2017, but a later High Court decision cancelled these consents. In April 2020, the Court of Appeal found that EPA's 2017 decision was not consistent with the law to protect the environment from harmful substances. TTR appealed to the Supreme Court, to which Ngarewa-Packer said "We’re annoyed that we may have to go to court for a fourth time as right now our efforts are focused on protecting our community from Covid-19. But we are undeterred in our resolve and we will oppose TTR’s application for yet another appeal." The Supreme Court's final decision supported the earlier courts in cancelling the consents.
In 2011, she joined a 10-member independent panel set up by the Government to identify ways to raise the rate of return on Maori-owned assets, and grow Maori contribution to New Zealand's economy.
Regarding the Covid-19 response, The Spinoff described Ngarewa-Packer in 2020 as "a key voice in the Covid-19 iwi response, not only in analysing and mitigating risks in her own rohe, but in keeping applied pressure on local and central government to include Māori in their risk assessment."
Parliamentary career
Election to parliament
2017 attempt
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer "put her hand up" to be the Māori Party's candidate for the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate for the 2017 election, saying she had been approached by party co-leader Tariana Turia and that she had "supported the Maori Party from day one". However, the party's candidate for this electorate was ultimately Howie Tamati.
2020 election
Ngarewa-Packer was selected in October 2019 to be the Māori Party's candidate for the Te Tai Hauāuru electorate for the 2020 election – the first electoral candidate announced by the party for that election – and in April 2020 was elected unopposed to be co-leader of the Māori Party, along with John Tamihere. Ngarewa-Packer and Tamihere were the first party leaders elected since the Māori Party lost its parliament seats in the 2017 election, after which its previous leaders stepped down. Ngarewa-Packer had the party's number one list position for the election.
Ngarewa-Packer was generally considered to be the Māori Party's best chance at returning to Parliament; polls showed the party below the 5 per cent party vote threshold, so it would need to win at least one electorate seat to enter. A poll released in late September 2020 showed Labour's candidate for Te Tai Hauāuru, Adrian Rurawhe, as having greater support than Ngarewa-Packer, though there were a large number of undecided voters in the poll. In response to the poll, Ngarewa-Packer said she was buoyed by the number of undecided voters and called the electorate “winnable”. During the campaign, she stated a need for Māori-led approaches to problems faced by Māori such as worse health and housing, and that the Māori Party would hold the government to account.