I have a lot of aroha and respect for Marama, I do. There are times she shows boldness and courage, but there are also times when her addiction to the National Party overrides her own commitment and allegiance to Maori and she plays the same racism card her mates in the National Party do.
Last week, Marama, without anything more than the word of a right wing political blog, used the student intern scheme Labour were running as a way to attack Labour and denigrate Awataha Marae by describing the situation there as ‘slave labour’.
Where was Marama when Todd Barclay was caught out lying to NZ about secretly taping a staff member? Where was Marama when the Prime Minister got caught out doing the same thing? No word from her about her mates then, but here she was attacking Awataha Marae and giving racists everywhere a chance to stereotype Marae as slave labour slums.
Were the Marae who opened their doors during the Christchurch earthquakes slums Marama? Were the Marae in South Auckland that opened their doors to the homeless slums Marama? Was the Rautahi Marae that opened its doors to the flood victims at Edgecumbe a slum Marama?
No, they weren’t and denigrating Awataha Marae for cheap political points doesn’t make it a slum either!
It now turns out that overwhelming numbers of the Interns had a positive experience at the Marae and while one shower was broken, the Marae actually had 8 showers, so the entire story was a media beat up as far as I’m concerned.
What was far more damaging was the way Marama was prepared to side with racists attacking Marae hospitality just to give her National Party mates a distraction away from Bill English.
Leadership requires a careful analysis of what is truth and spin, Marama fell for the spin before anyone had a chance to investigate the truth and in doing so managed to smear all Marae.
Marama Fox can be a great leader sometimes, last week was not one of those times and it shows the belittling role the Maori Party have fallen to as pets of Bill English.
Once slight quible. Awataha in not a Marae because it is a commercial business framed by council on council land.
Yes Martyn what is going on with Marama now?
She went hard against the tobacco man when here remember??
Now she is siding with this National slime????
I hope she hasn’t been bought like all the rest of the national “cling-on’s.”
She’s an apologist for the National party and its rot. Denigrating the Marae by calling it substandard and calling overseas political volunteer interns here for a short time slaves to land a hit on her opponent the Labour party went many steps too far. She knows better. The mud she tried to fling ended up covering herself and I dont think she cares. New Zealand doesn’t need any more politicians like that.
Whats with Hone too?
Well said, Martyn. I am disturbed and disgusted by Marama Fox’s slandering of Awataha Marae. Her hatred of Labour runs so deep that she couldn’t even wait for the facts to come out. Her knee-jerk reaction would make a Act or NZFirst redneck proud.
I’m sure Marama’s Mormonism guides her unfailingly. Actually they do alright getting 10% off her don’t they?
100% GARIBALDI.
Marama needs to leave parliament and become relevant somewhere. I don’t recall her ever saying that her party would govern for “all” people. She truly is a tragic and more than likely will not get elected this election.
The purpose of the Maori Party is to give the Maori voters the illusion that they(the Maori Party)are there, in politics, for the primary purpose of helping and supporting Maoris. But the true reality of the Maori Party is they(the Maori Party)are there to whomever pays them in pay packet and perks of the job the most. In other words the Maori Party is there in word only and ineffective when it comes to Maoris throughout NZ. Still that is JustMe saying this. I could be way off beam but it’s just a casual observation on my part.
One only needs to look at all the policies the Maori Party have supported when it comes to the National government to know their TRUE priorities and THEIR TRUE values. And Maori within the wider communities of NZ have nothing to do with it.
And yet this also brings up a question as to how many Maori were killed in the Pike River Mine???!!! Because the Maori Party lack of voice shows they do not care about NZers overall whether they(NZers)are Maori or Pakeha).
The Maori Party ONLY care about themselves. How many of them(the Maori Party)do we ever see sleeping on the streets of NZ??!!!! Probably the usual answer is ‘none’.
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