Waatea News Column: What kind of Queen maker will Māori Party be?
The latest Taxpayers’ Union Curia Political Poll has the Māori Party on a staggering 3.5%.
I say staggering because the highest the Māori Party has ever obtained was 2.39% in 2008.
This constant strength in Māori Party vote is driven by demographics, the new community outreach nerve endings generated during the Covid vaccination drives, a social media campaign that is relentlessly positive and the extreme rhetoric of the Right over co-governance alongside the drive by ACT to eliminate the Department of Māori Affairs.
There are more Māori, they are connected on social media, that social media empowers their identity and they are angry about the anti-Māori rhetoric.
This is all combining to bring Māori voters into the ballot box in numbers and intensity we probably haven’t seen in a decade.
It is completely possible that the Māori Party could cross the 5% threshold in 2023.
The reality is that the polarization of politics in 2023 will mean Labour and the Greens can only form a Government with the Māori Party, so what kind of Queen maker should the Māori Party be?
I believe that what is good for Māori is good for all New Zealand.
Some may argue that a Labour/Green/Māori Party could push through radical reforms around the Treaty and mandatory Te Reo, which I think would be a mistake.
The urgent need is in child poverty, housing, climate adaptation and inequality.
We need policies from a Labour/Green/Māori Party government that focus on those issues first and foremost, real economic transformation that takes the tax yoke off workers and puts it on corporations and banks!
To resource the social infrastructure required to be meaningful in the lives of those who vote for us, we need new taxes that target the richest while easing the tax burdon on the poorest.
A Labour/Green/Māori Party Government must see a win in 2023 as a generational tide moving against propertied Boomers and the economic vested interests of today’s pollution and pass legislation worth the mana of that victory.
It is not enough to virtue signal to people any longer, if the progressive side of politics represented by Labour, Greens and Māori Party win in 2023, they must manifest real material change in the lives of our poorest.
Do that and the people will trust that Government with more decolonisation.
First published on Waatea News.
TPM i think, will go into the next parliament with 5 MP’s. and before all of you right wingers start hand wringing and pearl clutching, i’m looking at you Bob, there is no guarantee that TPM will enter into a coalition with Labour, N/Act is definitely a big no. i think they would prefer to stay in opposition, and have all the other parties approach them on a case by case basis for support.
I agree with you Standalone. Maori will get 2 electorate seats because of Adrian going into the list for Labour.
If they get 5% that will give them at least 6 seats. Unfortunately they will probably get their votes from Labour and Greens rather than the NatActs because not too many thinking self respecting Maori would be NatAct supporters right now. I also think they would rather stay around the flap of the tent rather than be inside, giving them the option to negotiate real gains on a case by case deal. If they are in tent then they will need to concede something to get something else.
I would not be surprised if we have a minority lame duck Government.
The best I could wish for is a minority NatAct government that has 3 years of absolutely frustrating inertia being unable to pass any of their draconian right wing legislation while displaying their true colours.
The worst scenario is for Winston to be back and showing his true colours by supporting NatActs. Be interesting watching him and Seymour suppressing the very ethnic group they claim they belong.
“It is a known fact that Māori genetic makeup is stronger than others.” This is straight off the Maori party website. If you think these racist clowns will make NZ better for everyone you’re deluded
where does it say that? i’ve read their website several times, and never seen that anywhere on their site. if you can provide a link, that would be helpful.
thanks.
wow, your out of context statement , makes you appear a to be a fuckwit, doesn’t it?
If the Maori party are the balance of power in the next election I genuinely believe they’ll go with National, going with National doesn’t mean working with Act, minor parties only have agreements with the major party, NZf never had a deal with the greens and for the 9 years of the fifth national govt the Maori party never had a deal with the act party, both only worked with national not each other.
Maori party going with national would mean act doesn’t get cabinet positions.
They’ll say “it’s about having a seat at the table and working with our treaty partners” but really it’ll be because the people in positions of power in maoridom got there through generations of nepotism much like the people in positions of power in national got their through generations of nepotism. They have similar outlooks.
Hell it was national that created whanau ora with the Maori party a health services that has the government paying the likes of destiny church to run low quality health centers.
A coalition of ngati trickle down and ordinary trickle down. A match made in heaven.
The Maori party is not the mana party.
The mana party wanted to house everyone. To feed all the kids.
The Maori party wants to house Maori. To feed Maori kids.
National and act LOVE community led programs where they can dump govt responsibilities into private organizations and the Maori party loves it too. All three parties can outsource govt responsibilities and have some of their mates get rich.
Oh and charter schools. All three of them like them. Outsource govt responsibilities so their mates can get rich.
I’m from a mixed race family, the idea that Maori aren’t as greedy and selfish as pakeha is hilarious.
If they go with national Maori party can create a whole bunch of useless outsourcing neoliberal organizations in state housing, health, education, mental health, environment, welfare , addiction and call them by Maori for Maori and the woke will eat it up.
Too bad it’s the Maori party in parliament and not the mana party.
Yes Bert I agree with your point about the Maori Party being Johns puppets but this in my view is a different Maori Party with a different kaupapa. However it will be up to their constituents whether they are in the tent or outside of it. Based on previous election years many of the Maori voters prefer to be in the tent with LABOUR despite all the vitriol from Tariana Turia who is a Labour hater.
John Tamahere has no love for them either… i think they might go it alone, guess we’ll find out in a years time.
Nicely put covid+is+pa.
Yes CIP, anyone who knows anything about politics knows Turiana was a hater but happy to jump into bed with the corrupt National Party and leave her core political beliefs behind. And what a mess she left behind.
Look many of you naysayers said the Maori party wouldn’t get in at the last election but Labour neglected the issue in Tauranga (toxic pollution from the port) and then all of a sudden the Labour Maori politicians turned up to support Coffey by then it was too late. Te Pati Maori will go with what their constituents want and it wont be National.
Many Maori party voters are pakeha lefties who are fed up with the lack of any meaningful action against poverty and the housing crisis by the Labour and Green parties.