WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: The Kākāriki Alliance – How Māori voters using MMP tactical voting in Māori electorates could determine the next Government
I have been commentating on NZ Politics for 31 years and one thing I can tell you about NZ elections is that Māori voters in the Māori Electorates are the most strategic MMP voters in our country.
Māori voters inside the Māori Electorates have worked out how to maximize Māori representation better than any single other group in NZ.
That’s why how Māori in the Māori electorates decide to strategically vote this election is so important to the outcome, because this election is going to be so close.
IF Māori voters inside the Māori electorates chose a ‘Kākāriki Alliance’ MMP strategy, this Right Wing Government can not win.
If the focus is on getting National, ACT and NZF out of power, then the Kākāriki Alliance’ MMP strategy is the means to do that.
If Māori voters inside the Māori electorates candidate Vote Te Pati Māori but Party vote green, that tactical voting will create an MMP overhang for Te Pati Māori PLUS it recycles the Party vote to the Greens.
That makes sure the Greens remain the 3rd largest Party ahead of NZ First WHILE generating a TPM Overhang.
This one tactical voting strategy inside the Māori electorates, Candidate Vote TPM and Party vote Green, would deliver Labour a victory at the election and stop this terrible and vicosu right wing Government in its tracks.
If Te Pati Māori enter this election pushing candidate vote TPM BUT Party vote Green, it would be the first time in MMPs history that a Party promoted voting for another political party to maximise the MMP vote.
It is the only voting tactic that will ensure National, ACT and NZFirst are a one term Government.
The entire election could be decided by Māori voters in the Māori electorates if they candidate vote TPM but Party vote Green this election.
It could be the Māori voters inside the Māori electorates who save NZ from National, ACT and NZF this year.
The Greens need a lesson in environmental and democratic socialism mongrel.
” LABOUR’S announcement of a capped public transport fare—$20 in the major cities and $10 in rural areas—marks the beginning of its slow-drip campaign strategy. It is classic Labour: a small, contained, fiscally tidy gesture dressed up as a bold intervention. The party wants to signal that it “gets” the cost-of-living crisis while never straying far from the neoliberal orthodoxy it has spent decades defending. It is a balancing act Labour has tried to master: posing as the champion of working people while ensuring the economic model that produces inequality remains untouched.
The problem is not that cheaper public transport is undesirable. The issue is that Labour is offering nothing more than tweaks to a system that is structurally broken. New Zealand’s economic model—low wages, high rents, privatised infrastructure, and a political class terrified of confronting capital—cannot be fixed with a handful of capped fares. Yet that is the extent of Labour’s ambition. This election is shaping up to be a contest between two parties auditioning to be the next manager of the neoliberal economy, each promising to administer the same framework with marginally different emphases.
The party that could have disrupted this charade is the Green Party. It has not committed itself to an ecosocialist programme in the way the UK Greens have – with resounding success -but its policies are consistently to the left of Labour’s. On public transport alone, the Greens have pledged free urban travel and subsidised inter-regional services—policies that would materially improve people’s lives and shift the country toward a low-carbon future. These are not symbolic gestures; they imply more significant structural interventions.
Yet the Greens have chosen not to fight. Instead, they have hitched their wagon to Labour’s, and in doing so have ensured that many of their policies will never see the light of day. The party appears content to sit in Labour’s shadow, hoping that proximity to power will substitute for the exercise of it. This week’s public transport announcement is a perfect example. With the national conversation focused squarely on fares, the Greens had a golden opportunity to highlight their far more ambitious policy. Instead, they have done next to nothing. The Green’s have applied no pressure on Labour, and they have made no attempt to seize the moment.
https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2026/06/buisness-as-usual-and-greens-are.html
[I thought I posted this but may have put it it in the wrong place – apologies].
None of you out there will be surprised at the corrupt lengths this CoC will go to in order to get back in, to complete the destruction of NZ! So put aside your ‘supposed’ moral compasses and vote strategically for the Left to oust them completely. They are a disgrace, and not fit to rule in any shape or form! Disneyland characters could do a way better job! What have they done of real imporance so far, and what are their false “promises” again for the future? They are beyond a joke – but not one of us is laughing – it’s way too tragic and serious now for that!
” It is in the negotiation AFTER the election with Labour using a unified negotiating team of Green and TPM to force the real tax changes and environmental policy we need ”
Let’s be honest even with an increase in the Green parties share of the vote after the general election they wont use that when it comes to negotiating with Labour should it look like they could form a government.
They will settle for a couple of Labour’s crumbs from the table and a couple of ministerial seats outside of cabinet and think they have achieved something when their supporters will want real concessions.
TMP and Tamihere are the bulldozers that will not tolerate the usual incremental neoliberal bullshit every time LINO are in government.
If TOP are there ( and Labour will be hoping they are ) it will be interesting to see the dynamics at play and if Hipkins and his colleagues will bully them into submission.
If there is a change IF ! We cannot afford a rerun of the last Labour government who showed how useless they were with a once in a lifetime majority in the parliament.
The damage inflicted with business as usual neo liberalism deserves an emergency response to the situation we are facing.
Its time Hipkins and Labour get to grips with the reality of the crisis we are facing.
” New Zealand is facing overlapping crises—economic, social, ecological—and none of them can be solved by managing the status quo more efficiently. What is needed is a break from the neoliberal consensus that has dominated politics for decades. Labour will not provide that break. And unless the Greens rediscover the courage to challenge Labour rather than cling to it, they will not provide it either.
For now, voters are left with a dispiriting choice: two major parties competing to be the safest pair of hands for a system that is failing, and a Green Party that seems determined to play the role of loyal sidekick rather than transformative force. The country deserves better than capped fares and capped imagination.
https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2026/06/buisness-as-usual-and-greens-are.html
None of you out there will be surprised at the corrupt lengths this CoC will go to in order to get back in, to complete the destruction of NZ! So put aside your ‘supposed’ moral compasses and vote strategically for the Left to oust them completely. They are a disgrace, and not fit to rule in any shape or form! Disneyland characters could do a way better job! What have they done of real imporance so far, and what are their false “promises” again for the future? They are beyond a joke – but not one of us is laughing – it’s way too tragic and serious now for that!