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Merepeka Raukawa-Tait has questioned whether the National Party is "trying to pitch Māori as being public enemy no. 1" during a panel discussion on Newshub Nation on Saturday.
The Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency chair made the comments while with Stuff reporter Andrea Vance discussing the controversy over bilingual road signs sparked by National.
"They've ruled out working with the Māori Party, they will disestablish the Māori Health Authority, they've got an issue with… bilingual road signage," she said.
"I don't know whether they're trying to pitch Māori as being public enemy no. 1 but it doesn't feel right, and it feels as if they're taking us back to a time of 30 years ago and we're way past that now - so I'm sad to see it, really."
Raukawa-Tait said times have changed since when National's core constituency would have perhaps "bought into that".
"Today, young people… they're so familiar with Māori words, they're so familiar with tikanga even. They go on to maraes… they're preparing their little projects for Matariki - all of that sort of thing."
