When Hone was kicked out of the Māori Party in 2011, Matt McCarten and I were putting together the MANA Party for him and I served as Mana’s Political Strategist.
Hone is one of the great political leaders in NZ Politics and working with him for years inside MANA was one of the best roles I ever had.
I have an enormous amount of respect for him.
Of late, Hone has been arguing tirelessly that te Pati Māori, Greens and Labour have to work together to defeat this hard right Government.
Hone knows where the enemy is, and it isn’t in the Māori Party leadership.
The inevitability of Mariameno and Doc being kicked out of the Party at the AGM and the invocation of the Waka Jumping legislation to trigger 2 by-elections has actually built in the last 72 hours.
Their point blank refusal to acknowledge the role they have had in the current meltdown suggests there is no alternative but 2 by-elections.
Let’s be very clear.
This entire meltdown was triggered by a leadership challenge because Debbie and Rawiri weren’t ‘tikanga enough’. When the Party should have been celebrating their by-election win, Treaty Referendum protests and not getting pinged once for any of the corruption allegations, two of their own put their egos before the waka and plotted a leadership coup.
Debbie and Rawiri deserved loyalty, not plotting.
Despite being the architect of the Māori Party success, JT has been portrayed as an anti-tikanga Machiavellian dark prince who runs the party like a dictatorship when only about 2/3rds of that is true. The CIA once said of Saddam Hussein, “He’s a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch”. If there is to be any real material change out of post election negotiations, you will need JT to be part of that negotiating team. Capitalism won’t just let you change it, you have to force it to change, and that is JTs superpower. Having him blamed misses who embarked upon this destabilisation.
If a by-election is to occur, I believe te Pati Māori’s only option is to ask Hone to stand for them.
He has a mana and honour beyond reproach and a Hone victory for te Pati Māori would be a reset that was meaningful.
In a Mariameno vs Willow vs Hone showdown, Hone would have a very good chance of victory.
Returning Hone to Parliament would be the Māori Party’s greatest coup, it’s one worth having a by-election for.
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Look, that was my first thought weeks ago-Hone! But in reality he is 70 now and deserves to enjoy his elder statesman role.
I see him most weeks at Kaitaia market treating various moko to snacks while he shoots the breeze with the “important” and the ordinary folks. Known him since ‘78 in the car industry and he is one of our country’s significant political figures.
This rotten racist Govt. is the worst for Māori in decades and must go, so maybe Hone will come out of retirement. Willow could come through the middle though if Kapa Kingi is unable to reflect on what she has done.
…Hone! But in reality he is 70 now and deserves to enjoy his elder statesman role.
TM We can’t keep on the retired laid-back position for oldies now. That’s 20th century thinking and time moves on fast. Up your ideas please.
We must love one another before we die, which is a paraphrase of WH Auden’s poem Sept 1/39. He became critical of his own work, (‘We must love one another or die’), thinking it too sentimental perhaps, and replaced a word to read ‘love one another and die.’ He was thinking perhaps that how we show love is important to implement, even if we die earlier?
Whatever, can’t waste time on semantics, we must keep loving and helping our young people so they have some resistance to the mega Mr Creosotes,and their acolytes and random jabs at activating people to suck in business directives and hype, but also suffer when spit out. Getting employment becomes an obstacle course, and then many employees are forced to work at lower wages than their living costs, and may have no job security or actually any at all.
Awesome idea hope he’s up for it because he does have experience in politics and has a good way of articulating his position
” Returning Hone to Parliament would be the Māori Party’s greatest coup, it’s one worth having a by-election for ”
Hone is one of the few bad arses the real left have in negotiating a better deal for many Kiwis doing it hard should he stand and be elected back to parliament. The real left needs more hard hitters and Hone is a proven contender. Hipkins and the managerial class will be on notice. TMP is not a pushover like the Greens who stand politely in the background endorsing more soft neoliberal economics.
If Orini Kaipara jumps ship to join the Kapa-Kingi’s as she has indicated then the Waka Jumping legislation would seem not to apply because ii requires a two thirds Caucus vote in favour.
The other interesting question is this.
Where does Maipi-Clark sit in this destruction of The Maori Party?
Who is she with?
Who is she against?
Does anyone know?
What’s this pattern of presentation emerging with comments in double spacing? Its annoying and spins out meagre thoughts till they become thin as gossamer.
If Martyn does it. it is because he has to write in a hurry and uses it to concentrate our minds on his concerns and facts. But commenters are lately doing so. Is it an AI thing where the expansive mind of the techwork is illustrated as being filled with… not very much.
Really! im right and I doubt our people will want two Māori parties; I can’t see this happening. And if it does, I believe many of our people will vote the Maori Labour candidates in like myself who is on the Ikaroa Rawhiti roll. Labour had some very good candidates at the last election and I’m sure they can muster up some more.
Yep. Back to labour. But vote Greens it’s really toooo bad this idiotic coup has happened NOW. No one is impressed. Yeah kapa Kingi and Ferris hope you are pleased with yourselves in exploding up a political force for all Māori and all NZ need at this critical time. Wow that is what you will be remembered for. You dumb fucks.
The terrible trio definitely thumb-down lame ducks. Laying bad eggs. Waddle off to your nest and brood about your smart moves to get into headlines strutting your stuff. We want to follow Maori into well counselled meetings leading to Parliament and try and pull NZAO out of the fire that seems the goal of the reactivated upper classes in NZ.
The comfortable, wealthy and unrestrained spoilt conceited children of the ambitiously wealthy upper classes, Pakeha, Maori or engrossed merchant princes from other countries are quite sanguine as to how the less-funded, ordinary person copes and gains a better life.
Now under climate change, and eternal war impulses we need to stay together and keep our minds clear. Go for it Hone and team and let the stone that was rejected become the cornerstone.
“The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.” Psalms 118:22-23, KJV. ” ….
The Bradbury Group Streamed live on Aug 19, 2025
Hone Harawira, Starting at 25:26 minutes:
“The reality is that this government is focused on the destruction of Māori, absolute destruction of Māori whānau, Māori language, Māori kaupapa, Māori economic development, Māori environmental policies, Māori anything……”
“……There’s an understanding that we can hold this and if we work with the others, we can be part of a government in 2026.
So my whole view is: stop taking shots at one another, stop saying my policy is better than yours. Start understanding that strategically, there are either the three of them at the table or there’s nothing.”
Listen to Hone Harawira’s full remarks.
Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeWkjx2cxoU&t=9s
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