The extraordinary wins for the Māori Party are historic and paradigm-shifting.
While the Specials remain to be counted, the scale and wave of the Māori Party win and its new increased influence in politics has been generated by the new demographic realities of the Māori electorate where 70% of the population is under 40.
No where can the scale of that demographic shift be seen better than in the remarkable win by 21 year old Hana Maipi-Clarke against Nanaia Mahuta.
As we await the Specials, the unique features of the MMP overhang are in sharp focus and it is time for the Māori Party and the wider Left to think long and hard about the journey in front of us.
The ideas shaped in He Puapua to see Māoridom given the promises of Treaty Sovereignty has generated a cultural and political backlash as the Right successfully managed to frighten White NZ into believing it represented a secret agenda to steal NZ Democracy.
What the overhang shows us however is that there is a direct means within the current MMP rules that could actually deliver Māoridom that Treaty Sovereignty without actually requiring the painful and inflammatory fight He Puapua has descended into.
If the Māori Party ran in all Māori Electorates for only the Electorate seat while advising the Party vote should go to Labour, the Māori Party would generate an enormous ever present MMP overhang that would forever keep them in the heart of Government.
Why push He Puapua and fight the reactionary white backlash when the solution to real power lies within the existing MMP rules?
First published on Waatea News.
The racist party are nothing without the wee token seats WE gave them because they legitimately can’t stand on merit so we give race based crutches
Can you imagine the 1 man one-vote complaints from the leafy suburbs if that happened? They don’t mind if they do it in Epsom but it would be hissy fit central if they felt that the rules disadvantaged them. It’s a pity they didn’t decide to do this a few months ago when the polls showed the low left vote. this is more a reflection on the issues within Labour who appear to be almost incapable of relating to the country outside of the PMC.
If TPM wanted real change they could offer to go with Nat/Act and keep Winston on the side line . They will achieve little for their people from the side lines.The party worked with Key and made some wins for Maori.
Absolutely, you nailed it Martyn with this article, thats what Te Pati needs to do because the Labour Party just can’t cut it anymore, they have tried to be all things to everyone but they need to take a leaf out of the National Party who only represent their Rich minority, they don’t give a shit about ordinary NZers? And Labour needs to do the same & represent their far bigger demographic who are the Proletariat class & Poor, they also need to mobilise those on benefits & get them to vote, because it’s in their best interests to vote Left as they always get hammered when the Right get in power? Our Family strategically voted, we pinched out noses & reluctantly Party voted for the disappointing, feekless & timid Labour Party while voting Te Pati Maori in the Electorate vote & it seems many others did the same on the Left, splitting their Electorate votes between the Green Party & the Maori Party? Labour takes for granted Maoris & they have paid the price at this Election & the utter pointlessness of their Election Campaign, they had nothing to lose so they should have gone big on bold Social & Tax policies like the Maori & Green Parties did but no their lack of Political courage & fecklessness has sunk them at this Election cycle, they were pathetic & will be out of power for a longtime unless they make big changes, their Neoliberal light version of the National Party just doesn’t work?
Their success is proof that Maori do not need the so called Maori Seats. It’s probably time they were removed, and as Maori are well represented in parliament from the general electorate their need is no more. There should be a referendum on this matter….Let the people decide…
“If the Māori Party ran in all Māori Electorates for only the Electorate seat while advising the Party vote should go to Labour, the Māori Party would generate an enormous ever present MMP overhang that would forever keep them in the heart of Government.”
That almost seems to be in play already. Despite four electorate seats going to Te Pati Maori and marginal loses in a further two, Labour received the highest party vote in all seven seats.
What? Are you suggesting TPM try and be democratic? They don’t like democracy…
You may not know what it feels like to be a part of a community that feels good because they trust you and respect you and can make decisions for each other in parliament makes for a better mood.
‘Feel good’ can occur with dangerous ignorance, Sam.
It happened in Germany in the 1930s.
The Greens success and maori party success came at the expense of Labour, simply the left eating the left vote!
Now if Labour were more of a threat to the treasury benches then the ‘wins’ would not have happened.
It’s not exactly MMP in action when the ‘winners’ are still losers and in opposition.
The first to go will be The Treaty, then our Crown alliance, then our Aotearoa / New Zealand.
MMP was, indeed still is, a mechanism of cancerous control. Just in case the masses do ris and form an alliance within one main body of politic for we, the people, by we, the people. Water them down instead then keep ’em off balance with pointless gibberish. RNZ and TVNZ would agree. I believe the reason why we now have a fucking nightmare gubbimint on our hands is because MMP scattered our votes to the Sou Westers. In short, and I’m not that short, I believe MMP is a means to a scam.
All you have to do is look around? What do you see? I see MMP and chaos, poverty, alienation, 14 multi-billionaires, 3118 multi-millionaires with wealth in excess of $50 million each and four foreign owned banks murdering us in our fitful sleep and there are only 5.2 million of us and our primary industry is agriculture, which used to be sustainable but now isn’t.
I was given this to read recently:
“Meanwhile, attacking Māori is as old as European settlement. Here is James Richmond, a future member of parliament, writing in 1851. He looked forward to the day, he said, “when the preposterous Treaty of Waitangi will be overruled” and the “ridiculous claims of the natives to thousands of acres of untrodden bush and fern will no longer be able to damp[en] the ardour and cramp the energies of the industrious white man”.
@ Maori. You have been warned.
Anyway. Who gives a fuck.
This nightmare of a fascist neoliberal 5 headed monster of a lame-ass government’s reign of terror is over!
A $100b bazooka spent and nothing to show for it. Well if you’re a property developer. They gave it some of it to the incoming government. So that was well thought out Robo! A massive load of legislation passed that has achieved fuck all and legislation gets hijacked by the mentally challenged people.
What we’ll get now is a visible enemy, not like the gutless muddle class and yoofs that are the most selfish generation ever. I hope mortgage rates hit 9%!
Yeti has a valid point.
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