Extraordinary attack on Maori Party

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, August 26th, 2011 - 8 comments
Categories: maori party - Tags: ,

Waihoroi Shortland, the Maori Party candidate in the Te Tai Tokerau electorate, has been warned to “Watch your back, lest it be bitten by the Maori Party dogs”.

What makes this warning so extraordinary is that the person issuing it is none other than Shortland’s predecessor, Solomon Tipene, candidate for the same party for the same electorate in the recent by election. Claire Trevett reports:

Watch your back, candidate warned

The Maori Party’s Te Tai Tokerau byelection candidate Solomon Tipene has warned his successor to watch his back “lest it be bitten by the Maori Party dogs” – a reference to the leaders of the party.

Mr Tipene – who came a distant third to Mana’s Hone Harawira and Labour’s Kelvin Davis in the electorate – made the comments on Te Kaea after Waihoroi Shortland was selected to stand for the party in the election. …

“Watch your back, lest it be bitten by the Maori Party dogs. I’m referring to the leaders – they did that to me and Hone Harawira.”

Not only is Tipene attacking the Maori Party leadership in the strongest possible terms, he actually seems to align himself with ex-rival Hone Harawira as a fellow victim of mistreatment.

Mr Tipene did not return calls yesterday but the party president Pem Bird said it was clearly a reference to Tariana Turia over her comment in the lead-up to the byelection that Mr Harawira should win it, if he had put in the work.

Actually there was more to it than that. According to this account at the time: “Ms Turia has said Maori Party candidate Solomon Tipene is lovely and kind, but doesn’t understand politics”.  (This was read by some as an endorsement of Labour’s Kevin Davis.)  Anyway, maybe Mr Tipene is a fast learner.  He seems to understand politics just fine now.  And he certainly seems to have had the last laugh on Tariana Turia.

8 comments on “Extraordinary attack on Maori Party ”

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  1. The Voice of Reason 1
    26 August 2011 at 10:01 am

    I wonder if Hone will approach Tipene to be a Mana candidate? It would be a further nail in the MP’s coffin and one in the eye for Turia.

  2. alex 2
    26 August 2011 at 12:18 pm

    Meh, they’re competing over 7 seats, and Labour will probably sneak through the middle in most of them anyway. Maori Party is toast.

  3. ron 3
    26 August 2011 at 6:20 pm

    A Sham buit true. Turia might get in but th rest of them are gonners.

  4. mik e 4
    26 August 2011 at 6:43 pm

    turia I thought was retiring

    • Lanthanide 4.1
      26 August 2011 at 10:35 pm

      She was going to, due to poor health, but then she had gastic bypass surgery (or a stomach band, something along those lines) and is in much better health, so she’s going to stick around for the next parliamentary term should she win office.

      Basically given the shambles with Hone and no clear successors, she had to stay on if she wanted to the MP to live longer than Jim Anderton’s Progressives.

      • Ianupnorth 4.1.1
        27 August 2011 at 10:11 am

        The Maori Party have done their dash; aligning themselves with Key was a dream ticket for Turia, lots of government funded jollies. But they have shafted their electorate and let them all down.
        They will claim that whanau ora is their major achievemnt, but as all funding comes from pinching from other funding streams it is a very shallow claim.

        • mik e 4.1.1.1
          27 August 2011 at 11:00 am

          Pandering to a few elite Maori thats whats happened under National mean while the rest of Maoridom has high unemployment and very poor outcomes with inflation GST damaging Maori families badly she has sold out along with Sharples.Sent Maori backwards 10years or more in wealth .

  5. alex 5
    28 August 2011 at 10:34 am

    Perhaps the Maori party has done a favour to race relations in this country though. By selling out to the elites, they have shafted their people in exactly the same way Pakeha politicians have for years. Maybe now we can move beyond the whole Maori/ Pakeha dichotomy and recognise that those of us who aren’t elites need to join together against the elites, regardless of whether we came here by steamship or waka.

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