Election 2026: How Labour’s Māori Caucus can win back Māori voters
Every poll this year has told us how close the 2026 election will be and every tactical decision and strategic step will be crucial. How the Labour Māori Caucus fights could be the difference between winning and losing.
The main strategy being requested of the Labour Māori Caucus seems to be hell bent on destroying the Māori Party and winning back every Māori electorate.
I think this an obvious play that misses a far bigger picture.
The first problem with taking back all the Māori electorates is that it removes the possibility that the Māori Party will create an MMP Overhang if their party vote is lower than their electorate wins.
In an election this close, an overhang could be all the difference.
The second issue with simply taking out all the Māori Electorates is that it misses the focus of where the Labour Māori Caucus should be.
Māori who voted for National!
Breaking down the data for Māori voters from the last election paints a very interesting picture.
5% of Māori voters voted ACT, 5% voted NZF and a whopping 23% voted National!
Now.
If you are Māori and voted ACT or NZF, you are probably beyond redemption and recruitment for the Left. The anti-Māori and anti-Treaty agenda both ACT and NZF have embarked upon requires a level of political masochism if you are Māori that will tick ACT and NZF regardless of the pain.
But the 23% who voted National I believe are ripe for coming home to Labour.
Māori who voted for National in the last election did so in the hope their house price might go up 10%, they certainly weren’t expecting to get a race war of policies that demeaned and denigrated Māori-dom!
This 23% of Māori voters who voted National are the very ones that the Labour Māori Caucus should be targeting rather than a vicious civil war with the Māori Party in the Māori electorates, because taking from National is a far smarter way to win the election than fighting over voters with the Māori Party.
The Māori LINO caucus deserted their people many years ago and its extremely hypocritical to expect that Māori will return to the party that sold them out after taking them for granted for so long.
The worst outcome for Māori is the implosion of TMP and as a result will mean them following the crumbs that leads all the way back to LINO who will use them to their own advantage to ensure their continued obedience to free market economics.
I truly hope that Hipkins reads your site. This CoC is such an unprincipled and devious bunch of self-entitled “cheats”. Their underhanded, scurrilous changes to voter enrolment clearly shows this. NZ can’t take the risk of them going back in. What does it take for their smug, thick enablers to realise there will be NO NZ – we will become part of Australia or the USA! One would expect those who voted for this CoC last election will have woken up and realised that much of their pomises were con jobs/lies. Time for them to help fix this horrible MESS. So concerned folk, please write to Hipkins [Chris.Hipkins@parliament.govt.nz]. The Left can’t afford to ger this wrong and will need lots of money to fix this vicious circle. FGS surely all of you can see this!? And do read Dangerous Ruffian’s comments – excellent.
Very strange people no longer vote on principle. I can understand the shit-eaters approach – if the smell annoys someone else, they’re happy. For anyone else, party voting TPM would be the obvious move. There is so little to lose. Treating this election like just another election would be terminal. Same tired old MMP jibber jabber. Commentary so bland it’s hardly worth the effort. It’s been mentioned that Luxo is running Decent Society 2.0 – sounds pretty accurate. The man can now hardly string a coherent sentence. Why wait for 3.0? Leave the big smug red elephant in the room to be big smug and red, and party vote TMP. Even if you’re a racist it still makes sense. John Tamihere once said he didn’t need any white man solutions. Wrong, my grisly little Pukeko – if even 10% of punk spirit fed up pakeha vote for your party, the game changes forever. It won’t even be an election if TPM aren’t at the table. It’ll be the biggest farce NZ politics has seen yet. It’ll be the election you have when you don’t want an election that’ll change anything. TPM can post a candidate pic of a fern frond or a peanut on their election boards, it won’t matter. “Photo coming later” is all anyone needs. Whites know about shit eating too. Once the decision is made, turn off, sit back, wait for polling to open. What a time to be alive.
For years Labour took Maori for granted and despite good talk did not do much to advance them.The TPM going with Key showed what can be done .As Maori move up the social ladder more see National as their party of choice .
There is factual history and then there is Trevs distorted imaginings
Where are your facts . The TPM was started by a ex Labour MP .Many other Maori have left after bad treat the latest being Penni Heneri .