People who feel "they have experienced discrimination" can lay a complaint, the Human Rights Commission says in response to questions about a controversial social media post on Te Pāti Māori's Instagram page.
The post infuriated the ACT Party, which said it was waiting for the commission to "condemn this as dehumanising and divisive".
Earlier this week, a post appeared on Te Pāti Māori's Instagram page from Eru Kapa-Kingi - who ran for the party in last year's election. The post began: "HOW TO TRAIN YOUR PĀKEHĀ: A series of responses to racist kōrero for the whānau!"
Kapa-Kingi has shared several similar posts but it was the first such post to appear on the party's page.
A Te Pāti Māori spokesman said the party was supportive of "any attempt by our own people to overcome harmful rhetoric and threats like weaponsing blood quantum against Māori to assimilate them into a pakehā being".
The spokesman said that was "colonisation in the modern essence".
In a statement to a Newshub he went on to say: "I would ask you to check the privilege and intent that you are emboldening with your story."
The Human Rights Commission did not condemn Te Pāti Māori for the post when asked by Newshub whether it would, but said anyone could complain if they wished to.
"Anyone who feels they have experienced discrimination can contact Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission to lay a complaint," it said in a statement.
ACT justice spokesperson Todd Stephenson said the party wouldn't be laying a complaint to the commission - which he called a "vehicle for left-wing activism and which should be abolished".
"The so-called Human Rights Commission hasn't previously felt the need to wait for a formal complaint before weighing in on a range of issues," he said in a statement.
"If a political party on the right were to make similar comments, the commission would be all over them.
"All we ask for is consistency. If it can't bring itself to criticise a left-wing organisation like the Māori Party - as it has failed to do in the past - the case for getting rid of the Human Rights Commission only grows."
