21/12/2025
Smoke, mirrors and pressure politics: how Matt McCarten tried to force a deal at MUMA
There’s a difference between standing up for workers and manufacturing a crisis to force an outcome. And in the ongoing dispute between Matt McCarten and the Manukau Urban Māori Authority, that line matters.
On the Duncan Garner podcast, McCarten claimed – or at least allowed it to be claimed – that he had 19 personal grievances ready to be filed against MUMA at the Employment Relations Authority. That claim travelled fast through right-wing blogs and talkback, amplified by commentators eager to portray a Māori organisation as dysfunctional, abusive, and out of control.
But here’s the problem: those 19 personal grievances were never filed. In fact, they never existed in the way listeners were led to believe.
According to reporting in the New Zealand Herald, McCarten has taken several personal grievance matters this year – not 19. The idea that 19 formal grievances were about to hit the ERA was wrong, and even the Herald notes that the podcast reporting on this point was incorrect. McCarten then provided a spreadsheet to the right wing blogosphere – what he failed to tell them was many were the same, several related to this Radio Waatea Station were not being represented by either him or his union and that many of them were not filed as personal grievances at all – in other words a fabrication – and instead of fact checking? the right wing bloggers went on a click bait rage with zero fact checking. They were was used by McCarten in other words.
McCarten himself has since shifted the ground. Instead of lodging mass grievances, he has attempted to challenge a trespass order issued by Ngā Whare Waatea Marae trustees. That is a fundamentally different legal issue – and crucially, one that sits outside the normal jurisdiction of the Employment Relations Authority.
Trespass is a property and tikanga matter. The ERA deals with employment relationships, not who has the right to enter a marae complex. Framing a trespass order as an “anti-union attack” suitable for ERA intervention stretches the law – and conveniently keeps the controversy alive in the media.
So why push the 19-grievance narrative at all?
Because pressure politics only works if you make the target look like it’s about to collapse.
see the full opinion piece here: https://waateanews.com/2025/12/21/smoke-mirrors-and-pressure-politics-how-matt-mccarten-tried-to-force-a-deal-at-muma/
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