'The only Māori' in Welcome Bay doesn't feel so welcome

A man who claims to be "the only Māori" in a "very expensive" part of Tauranga says he's sick and tired of the racism he has to endure from locals and officials. 

James Parker told Magic Talk on Monday his new neighbours in Welcome Bay haven't been living up to their suburb's name.

"I'm the only Māori in the area. Whenever anything happens to my place, nobody sees a thing. Whenever I'm doing anything, they all know everything."

Parker, 63, traces his Ngapuhi heritage back to 1846. He told Magic Talk host Peter Williams he's never been in trouble with the law, and is hardly the type to hold parties - preferring talk radio to loud music. 

He currently works as an estimator in Hawke's Bay. He's trying to build a new home in Welcome Bay, but has had endless trouble.

"All the people around me are Pakeha - white - and I'm building a little house on a very little section. It all started as I put a caravan on site to live in - I work in the Hawke's Bay and come to Tauranga every now and then where I'm building my little house."

Parker stays in the caravan, which is self-contained, when he's in Tauranga. He says the trouble began when neighbours sent a letter to the Tauranga City Council calling his presence "troublesome" and complaining the presence of his caravan was devaluing their properties. 

"I'm in a very expensive area, and because I'm building something that's not quite as expensive as what they live in."

He was away from the site during the lockdown, but when he returned after travel restrictions were lifted woke up the next morning to find someone had poured paint stripper all over his car. 

He reported the incident to police and went to Hawke's Bay for work. When he returned a couple of weeks ago he found someone had moved the caravan - damaging it in the process - and his plants had been poisoned. He laid a second police complaint, but says he's yet to hear back about either of them.

"It gets worse than that. The neighbours put a big pile of soil right on the waterfront which is leaching into the harbour. I wrote a letter and showed pictures to the Tauranga City Council and the regional council and they both did nothing. They let this person just carry on... just do what he wanted."

Then, he says, one of his neighbours complained to the regional council about his work-in-progress.

"Two days later I've got building inspectors - when I'm not here - crawling all over my little house, measuring every inch of it. But they turn a blind eye to Bella Vista next door," he said, referring to a failed Welcome Bay housing development which had council approval but later turned out to be too dangerous to live in. 

The last time he was there, he says he'd only been on-site for half a day when he was issued a notice to leave because the neighbours had complained - in his view, simply because Māori aren't welcome.