Waatea News Column: The Maori Party Disruptor Brand
You can appreciate Māori Labour MPs frustration as their work on Matariki, Oranga Tamariki, Ihumātao, anti-Māori petitions and Māori land reform got overshadowed this week by a Māori Party who managed to suck all the news oxygen out of the room through a fight over neckties and cultural identity.
That’s because this Māori Party is a true cultural disruptor and that brand will have significant electoral appeal by 2023.
The stance of principle Rawiri took against Mallard may seem small but for a Party with 2 MPs, it has given them headlines, wall to wall news coverage and a reputation for challenging the status quo.
Expect a new voice of assertive confidence from the Māori Party. Any suggestion the 2020 result was a fluke that won’t be repeated in 2023 seems hollow.
Mallard says they’ve come to a truce on the issue but the incredible media success would suggest that the Maori Party have only just begun.
First published on Waatea News.
Is one Maori sleeping in a drier home or been given help,to find a job due to this win. I do not care what he wears round his neck but I would like to see him earn his wages as a voice of the people.
He is the voice of his people te tangata whenua ???
Maybe we now have a Maori Party with some gonads, rather than a lap dog to the National and Labour Parties.
I think Tamahere has a long term strategy for the Maori Party to stand on it’s own two feet rather than being the abused junior partner of the two major parties. After all the Maori Party was formed after the Maori Members were being used and abused by the Labour Clark Government.
Gonads minus the phallic symbol tie ? Ha ha.