Terrorizing their opponents??? Did Labour just lose Ikaroa-Rawhiti?

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“Labour will campaign relentlessly to once again earn the trust of the people of Ikaroa-Rawhiti. We will organise, mobilise and terrorise our political opponents.

Normally I would be all in favour of Labour terrorizing their opponents. To see John Key and his front bench frightened of something that isn’t being conducted internally by Simon Lusk and Cameron Slater would be a first, but in the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election, Labour are fighting the Greens, MANA and the Maori Party.

I don’t think terrorize was the word they were really looking for was it?

If we want to check the record on terror however, it does show that Labour has a recent history record for terrorizing Maori.

-2004 Labour pass the largest confiscation of Maori land with the Foreshore and Seabed.
-2007 The terribly flawed, expensive and illegal detentions of the Tuhoe Raids happen under Labour.
-2012 David Shearer says Maori don’t own water.

…what Labour needs now is Parekura Horomia to rescue them from this gaffe, sadly he’s left them.

The use of ‘terrorize’ as the word to describe how Labour plan to fight the by-election must be a mistake and the worst strategic blunder since Rodney Hide said to David Garrett, “Hey, wanna be an MP?”.

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The real danger for Labour is that the rising star of Marama Davidson is attracting educated female Labour Party voters at the speed of light. Marama’s incredible performance on Native Affairs will force every Labour Party voter to ask, ‘why are we voting for the boring candidate again’?

With the issues swirling around how Meka’s brother cast a vote for her successful candidacy still annoying enough within Labour to keep leaking,

I predict that every other candidate will open every speech with, ‘Unlike the Labour Party, we are not here to terrorize you’.

Astounding mis-step from a mainstream party.

7 COMMENTS

  1. I think you’re wrong to conclude this is fatal for Labour. This kind of language only offends their mainstream base – and most of them can’t vote in this by-election.

    That said, it beggars belief that it made it into a press release. Presumably its release was in error, and there’s a junior staffer walking around looking unusually red-faced.

    That, or I just don’t get Maori politicking (which is probably also true), and the phrase was deliberately included – which means Labour are taking this by-election very seriously indeed.

  2. Anyone from Labour who continues to support and defend Shearer for all of his ineptness and hopelessness…you are not helping the cause of the Left to get rid of the National Party and their crony capitalism.

    Unbelievable that he would put this press release out, can anyone point out exactly what strength Shearer brings to being Leader of Labour?

  3. Having just now read the entire quote, it makes no sense anyway, I mean what the heck – We will organise, mobilise and terrorise our political opponents. – it’s gobbledygook. Surely it’s one’s own organisation one wants to organise and mobilise, not the opposition. Honestly. It’s only one sentence but it is amateurish and cringe-worthy. I too am not impressed by David Shearer – decent man he may be, but whereas John Key has taken to politics like a duck to water, David is floundering like a fish out of water. But my view is that Labour still has to come to terms with its recent neo-liberal history, the name “Labour Party” is itself presently an oxymoron, so it’s not surprising that the leadership really don’t know where they stand on anything, David Shearer will always be looking over his shoulder in case he says something wrong. I much preferred David Cunliffe, but obviously that David has offended some big players in the Labour party. I don’t known enough about internal Labour politics to understand what’s really going on though.

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