Waatea News Column: Labour and Te Pāti need to work together this election

Labour and Māori Party need to work together if they have any chance of pushing back on an anti-Māori election

The recent Polls keep pointing to a neck and neck election in 2023, fuelled on a cost of living crisis and post Covid pain that is inflaming race tensions between a new aspirational Māori identity and an angry frightened reactionary white and Asian New Zealand electorate.

These race tensions are being played to by the political Right who want to capitalise on the ill informed anger over 3 Waters, co-governance, the Māori Health Authority and He Puapua.

What is most egregious about the political Right’s attack is that it was National who signed NZ up to the UN Declaration on Indiginous Rights that has underpinned He Puapua; it was National and ACT who created the architecture of co-governance; it was National whose decision to privatize 49% of the hydro electricity assets that led Māori to seeking Waitangi Tribunal ruling on water ownership that has shaped 3 Waters; and it was Māori flaxroot organisations who outperformed Pakeha Health providers to vaccinate Māori and highlight once again the failings of a Pakeha dominated health system!

To now make 3 Waters, co-governance, He Puapua and the Māori Health Authority examples of ‘aparthied’ as David Seymour has claimed when the genesis of all these issues are with the Right is an audacity beyond reason!

It is clear that the Right intend to use Māori as a political punching bag going into the 2023 election.

Calling out such outrageous duplicity and race baiting will only go so far, what is required is a better strategy and better tactics.

To this end, the Māori Party and Labour should be sitting down and talking strategically about using MMP in the Māori electorates.

If the Māori Party gain more electorate seats than Party votes, it creates an overhang in Parliament which makes winning far more difficult for ACT and National.

By working together in a handful of Māori electorates, Labour and the Māori Party could produce this overhang.

Peeni Henare has already indicated he might prefer a list position than Tāmaki Makaurau and with Adrian Rurawhe as Speaker, the tradition is to move off the electorate onto the List.

If a deal could be struck for the Māori Party to retain Waiariki and are given a free run in Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Tai Hauāuru, that would give them 3 seats plus any Party vote they also pick up which is likely to be below 3%.

That creates an MMP overhang and that makes winning for ACT and National so much more difficult.

There’s no point wasting energy getting angry at the race baiting of the political Right, we need to fight smarter to defeat them.

First published on Waatea News.