WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Tamaki Makaurau by-election strategies will impact 2026 Election

As we enter Week 4 of the Tamaki Makaurau by-election, it is clear that Labour and Te Pāti Māori have very different tactics that will impact the 20206 Election.

Labour have moved with a ‘total impact’ campaign. They are at the Markets, they have advertising, they are on the street corners with signs and their candidate Peeni is EVERYWHERE doing all media interviews and asking questions in the house.

This action is then promoted on Social media, more as a wrap around to Peeni’s in person performances.

For Labour, social media is secondary to actually seeing Peeni in person.

The Labour ‘machine’ which has been mocked as a broken tool, has whipped in around Peeni effortlessly and the sudden renaissance of Labour’s once mighty ‘machine’ suggests a backlash to this National Government that empowers the wider Left as well as Labour.

This energy should give Labour more confidence that the tide really is turning on National, ACT and NZF.

Te Pāti Māori however have had a very different campaign that has sought to replicate the resistance to the Treaty Principles Referendum by primarily being a social media first campaign.

Oriini has not fronted for interviews, instead favouring direct Social Media interaction through Facebook and TicTok.
An event will be promoted on Social Media first as a social media event rather than as something added on as Labour does.

70% of Māori are under 40 and social media interaction has been enormous amongst that younger generation, so as a tactic this could upend traditional election campaigns, however it makes some heroic assumptions regarding hashtag activism that if wrong, could cost Te Pāti Māori an electorate seat.

‘Winning’ looks different for each Party.

For Te Pāti Māori, a 1 vote majority win would be an enormous victory, as would running close to Labour for second place. It would suggest a far more powerful Māori Party and that their social media first tactic is the way to reap massive electoral wins in the 20206 election

For the Labour Party, the only victory would be a massive win by Peeni, which would suggest that voters are demanding the Māori Party work with Labour, not Labour work with the Māori Party.

There is a lot riding on this by-election.