The Hui is one of the best current affairs shows in New Zealand and last week had a unique political poll of Māori voters and the insights suggest Labour has to do more if they want to keep their Māori voter base.
Labour – 37%
Māori Party – 11%
National Party – 11%
Green Party – 9%
ACT – 5%
Another Party – 10%
Don’t know – 10%
While Labour’s lead is solid, it’s important to remember that in 2020 Labour got 54% of the Māori electorate.
The cost of living crisis, the incremental nature of Labour’s progress on important issues and of course the violence on Parliament’s Lawns on top of Covid misinformation that runs rampant on social media have all eroded that 54% but it isn’t helping the Opposition Parties either.
The Māori Party, National and the Greens are gaining very little from this dissatisfaction with Labour, but interestingly enough this vote is going to ‘don’t know’ and ‘another Party’ which take almost a full quarter of all votes!
24% of voters not knowing who to vote for and/or choosing fringe political movements suggests an electorate in flux.
Māori are the first to feel economic pain in society because such high proportions of their population live on the economic fringes and such huge numbers of disenfranchised voters suggest terrible damage out there.
If Labour wants to continue their high level of support with Māori voters they are going to have to implement a policy that puts material well-being directly into those voters’ pockets.
We see with Labour’s decision to slash petrol prices by 25cents and halve public transport costs as a means of sidestepping MSD clawbacks via welfare increases as a way to bypass the welfare bureaucracy to impact people’s wallets directly.
Labour will need to do more of that thinking if it wants to innoculate voters from National’s tax cut promises.
First published on Waatea News.
With Labour ked by its Maori caucus pushing he puapua, co governance and 3 waters, Maori support has fallen.
Get Ardern to do a John Key and make a visit to NZs poorest street and take a few photos with pregnant teenagers and hungry brown kids. Then talk about poverty and welfare dependency and their cost to society. That’ll fix it.
What I mean is, they don’t give a fuck.
oh shit here we go again more chicken entrails on the altar
Labour is the only party to have done anything for Maori. National and Act have never supported Maori and have always used the race card near the election. This poll is another signal to Turia, Glavish and Tamihere that coalescing with the NATZACT will again be the Pati Maori downfall. Im suprised NZ First is not there but with Winson’s dumb Maori baiting I can understand.
Winston NZF has put his support in behinf David Seymour Guns and ACT>
ACT with it’s racist and separatist policies will only have Seymours Clayton’s seat at the next election