WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Te Pati Māori TVNZ poll meltdown damages everyone opposed to this Government

The devastation of the internal power struggle inside te Pati Māori has produced a bitter harvest for every single kiwi who is offended by the hard right legislative agenda of this Right Wing Government, because as the math shows us, a weakened and divided Maori Party makes getting 51% to defeat National, ACT and NZF an impossibility.

That is why the leadership challenge against Debbie and Rawiri were so wrong headed.

As co-leaders, they deserved loyalty not plotting.

Blaming John Tamihere for protecting the leadership from a coup is as misplaced as attempting the leadership challenge in the first place!

All the plotters have done is hand Sean Plunkett, Don Brash, David Seymour and Mike Hosking enormous political ammunition for the election and watching te Pati Māori tumble from 7% to 1% today is a moment of grief for everyone who was inspired by the anti-Treaty Principles Referendum.

It’s not too late.

If te Pati Māori are finished with self-mutilating themselves we still have hope.

This Christmas many will look around their table and see whanau missing who have fled to Australia because of this Government’s economic vandalism.

Many whanau will go without this Christmas as the cost of living bites them to the bone.

Many more will be laid off as the lack of retail spending ends temporary jobs.

We collectively face a blitzkrieg of hard right legislation aimed at undermining our ability to reign in the most vicious angels of capitalism from a Government more focused on strangling the common good for their donors interest than provide for all.

If we realise the damage of this Government and acknowledge another term will cement in place and calcify a level of inequality impossible to unpick, then maybe we have a chance.

The te Pati Māori leadership isn’t the enemy, the Government is and the sooner we realise that and unite to fight for the common ground between us, the sooner we can start fighting back.