Early political career

In the 2008 general election Davis stood for the Labour Party in the Te Tai Tokerau seat after being recruited by Labour MP Shane Jones.^[9] Davis failed to unseat the incumbent Hone Harawira of the Māori Party, but was elected to the 49th New Zealand Parliament by way of the party list.^[10] The Fifth Labour Government was defeated in the election and, in his first term, Davis was assigned opposition portfolios as the Labour spokesperson for biosecurity and associate spokesperson for education, Māori affairs and tourism.^[11] He was a member of the Māori affairs committee.^[11]

Harawira left the Māori Party in early 2011, formed the Mana Party and resigned from parliament to seek a fresh mandate in a by-election for Te Tai Tokerau. Davis ran for Labour,^[12] but Harawira retook the seat. Davis stood for the seat in the November 2011 general election, but placed second to Harawira for a third time and also failed to re-enter parliament from the party list. Davis announced his retirement from politics^[4] and took up a job with the Ministry of Education in Kaitaia, working in Māori education.^[13]

Return to politics

Davis was re-selected as Labour's candidate in Te Tai Tokerau for the September 2014 general election.^[4] Shane Jones then resigned from Parliament months prior to the election, and Davis assumed his place in the House of Representatives on 23 May 2014, as he was by then the highest-ranking non-MP on Labour's 2011 party list.^[14] He became Labour's associate spokesperson for corrections.^[11][4]

Harawira's Mana Party formed a coalition with the Kim Dotcom-founded Internet Party for the 2014 election.^[15] This resulted in Davis getting endorsements from Winston Peters of New Zealand First party^[16] and prime minister John Key of the National Party.^[17] Even the candidate for the Māori Party, Te Hira Paenga, reminded voters of the importance of strategic voting.^[18] Davis won the seat, unseating Harawira and ending the representation of the Mana Party in Parliament.^[19] In the first year of the 51st Parliament, Davis was a member of the law and order committee. Thereafter he sat on the Māori affairs committee and was that committee's deputy chair in 2017.^[11]

Davis became Labour's corrections spokesperson.^[20] In 2015, he criticised private prison provider Serco's management of inmates, alleging 'corruption' at the Mount Eden remand facility.^[21] Following an inquiry, Serco lost its contract to run the facility and Minister of Corrections Sam Lotu-Iiga was relieved of his post.^[22][4] Davis also criticised the Australian government for its incarceration of New Zealand expatriates facing deportation and visited a detention centre on Christmas Island.^[23] Davis also drew attention to the disproportionately high number of Māori in the New Zealand prison system, with Māori comprising 50.9% of the prison population despite making up just 15% of New Zealand's population.^[24][25]

A member's bill in Davis' name was drawn from the ballot and introduced to Parliament in November 2016. The Housing Corporation (Affordable Housing Development) Amendment Bill proposed an early version of Labour's KiwiBuild policy which would require the Minister of Housing to arrange for 10,000 houses to be built each year.^[26] The bill was defeated at its first reading in March 2017.^[27]

Becoming deputy leader

On 1 August 2017, Davis was appointed deputy leader of the Labour Party, serving under Jacinda Ardern.^[4] Davis' selection for the position was seen as balancing Ardern's liberalism and warmth with Davis's perceived conservatism and the more aggressive style of politics he had displayed as corrections spokesperson.^[4][28][29] Previously, Davis had led the Māori caucus within the Labour Party. On becoming deputy leader, Davis said his promotion would give a "sense of satisfaction" to Māori within the party and more generally.^[4] In a 2023 interview, Davis admitted he first turned down the role when it was offered to him.^[30] He was encouraged to accept the position by former Labour deputy leader Annette King and nominated by another former deputy, Grant Robertson.^[29]

On 1 September 2017, Ardern corrected Davis after he publicly said that Labour would campaign on a capital gains tax policy during the 2020 general election rather than implementing it mid-term.^[31][32] On 19 September, Davis indicated that he was willing to sacrifice his potential position as deputy prime minister in order for Labour to form a coalition government with either New Zealand First or the Green Party.^[33]

Minister for Māori–Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti

The Māori–Crown relations portfolio was created at the beginning of the Sixth Labour Government; Davis was the first to hold it. He oversaw the establishment of a new government department, Te Arawhiti, the Office for Māori Crown Relations, in 2018 to lead the portfolio's work and held a series of hui to determine its focus.^[43][44] In 2023, shortly before leaving the portfolio, Davis described its purpose as improving the capacity and capabilities of the Pākehā public service into te ao Māori, via the Treaty of Waitangi, "so that they get to know us as Māori, hopefully our language, our customs, why we think, feel and behave as we do and have the demands that we do as Māori, so that Māori don’t have to continuously justify our world view to Government agencies."^[45] In 2018, after his first year in the portfolio, Davis was praised by political scientist Bronwyn Hayward, who said that although his work was "below the beltway of gallery commentary... outside the Wellington bubble, he has been everywhere: visiting marae, listening, rebuilding trust."^[46]

Minister of Corrections

As Minister of Corrections, Davis has stressed the need to address the high rates of incarceration of Māori people. In August 2018, he called for a change to "a level of imprisonment that is simply devastating our Māori whānau and communities".^[47] By the end of Davis' term in office, the prison population overall had reduced from 213 people per 100,000 in 2018, near the highest in the OECD, to 149 per 100,000.^[48] Two of the policies advanced to achieve this were supporting defendants to be bailed, rather than held in prison on remand, and enabling prisoners to access a parole readiness scheme earlier in their sentence.^[49] However, Davis was accused by his National Party counterpart Mark Mitchell of focusing on emptying prisons rather than reducing crime.^[48]

During the Waikeria Prison riots that occurred between 29 December 2020 and 3 January 2021, Davis declined to issue public statements on the grounds that doing so would encourage other prisoners to take similar action and that he wanted to leave the response to experts.^[50] The Corrections Minister's silence during the five-day standoff drew criticism from the National Party's corrections spokesperson Simeon Brown and Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi, with the former criticising Davis' alleged lack of leadership and the latter saying that the prisoners were protesting their right to basic needs such as clean water, insufficient clothing, and washing facilities.^[51] Following the prisoners' negotiated surrender on 3 January, Davis disputed the prisoners' claims that the unrest had been sparked by inhumane and unhygienic conditions at the prison. He also said that "[the men] damaged property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they put their own lives and the health and safety of staff and other prisoners at risk."^[52] An investigation into the prison riots was conducted by chief ombudsman Peter Boshier. The report recommended the Department of Corrections urgently address workplace culture and leadership issues; Davis said some of the comments in the report was unfair because that work was already underway.^[53]

Minister for Children

Davis had been critical of Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Children, before his appointment as Minister for Children in November 2020, but resisted calls from Te Pāti Māori to close down the agency.^[54] He refused to express confidence in its chief executive, Grainne Moss and met with the public service commissioner about the future leadership of the agency.^[55] Moss resigned in January 2021.^[56] Soon after, Davis announced a ministerial advisory board that would investigate Oranga Tamariki's criticised policy of uplifting children from their families.^[57] Following the board's advice, Davis began reforms to devolve Oranga Tamariki services to iwi and community providers.^[54]

In September 2022, Davis made remarks during a Parliamentary debate telling the ACT Party's children spokesperson Karen Chhour to "enter the Māori world" and stop looking at the world through a "vanilla lens." Chhour had questioned Davis about the relationship between Oranga Tamariki and the Māori group Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust, which was being investigated for financing Māori Party candidate John Tamihere's campaign during the 2020 election. Davis' remarks had offended Chhour, who is Māori from the Ngāpuhi iwi, who stated that Davis' remarks had taken away her mana (prestige).^[58] Davis' remarks were condemned as racist by ACT leader David Seymour,^[58] and ACT urged Ardern to order Davis to apologise and to suspend him.^[59] Davis initially defended his remarks, but subsequently phoned Chhour and apologised to her.^[59]