Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, January 20th, 2011 - 105 comments
Hone Harawira is many things but stupid isn’t one of them. He has cleverly created a situation where Tariana Turia and her lackeys have had to attack him for daring to speak truth to power. It’s Hone who has been the protagonist. It’s he who has fronted to the media while Turia has hidden. He’s been planning this and he knows how it will play out.
Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, January 19th, 2011 - 100 comments
On Sunday and Monday, Hone Harawira gave very cogent and candid assessments of where the Maori Party has gone wrong by losing connection with its ideals and base. By the standards of mainstream parties it was extraordinarly blunt and appeared to be a challenge to Tariana Turia. But the Maori Party can be and should be different, eh? Seems not. Hone’s four fellow MPs have laid a complaint against him.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, January 18th, 2011 - 59 comments
Wow. The first edition of Hone Harawira’s new opinion column in the Sunday Star Times is a jaw-dropping read. He frankly states the party has sold out it values for cabinet seats – put coalition before kaupapa. It’s a brazen attack on Tariana Turia, and confirmation he intends to stay with the Maori Party and, some day, lead it back to its roots.
Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, November 29th, 2010 - 99 comments
Matt McCarten is doing the dance of the seven veils on the issue of a new Left Party. He and the other players have been denying they have anything planned but, at the same time, have spoken of the need for such a party, as Labour paddles around in circles, and said they might join were such a party to eventuate. I say go for it.
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 pm, November 17th, 2010 - 21 comments
Who would have thought that while Hone was talking up Matt McCarten in Mana the other day he was getting ready to vote with National and Act to undermine Kiwi workers’ annual leave and sick leave rights?
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, November 7th, 2010 - 205 comments
The rumour mill has been buzzing since a couple of commenters here let slip about Matt McCarten’s run in the Mana by-election. Word around the traps is the campaign will be used to launch a new Left Party with McCarten, Hone Harawira, Sue Bradford and others. It’s an exciting possibility.
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 3rd, 2010 - 9 comments
A pot-pourri of a few things that have come up in the media of late, and thoughts on other media matters…
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 1st, 2010 - 38 comments
The problem with any identity-based political movement is it pre-supposes that the common identity of its members surpasses their conflicting class interests. This has been brought to the head at the Maori Party national conference as Tariana Turia angrily denounced criticism of the Maori elite from the Left faction.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, October 28th, 2010 - 7 comments
Select committees are very important. They take Bills after first reading, hear submissions, and recommend alterations. Ministers do not (usually) sit on them and they are not meant to be mere rubber stamps for the government. But Harawira’s removal from the foreshore committee shows this government doesn’t care about good lawmaking.
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, October 20th, 2010 - 86 comments
I get Hone Harawira’s anger over National’s pandering to rednecks over the Foreshore and Seabed new legislation. That was the same anger that led to the Maori Party being formed in the first place (ironic that they’re voting for the new law). But I can’t abide by the racist language and actions he resorts to.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, September 14th, 2010 - 50 comments
Stuff is reporting that Hone Harawira will not vote for the Nats’ foreshore and seabed legislation. And John Key is clearly upset. Sounds like someone needs the whambulance. Key’s just lost the ability to claim that he has genuinely circled the square, giving Pakeha and Maori both what they want. All he has really done is bought off the Maori Party leadership.
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, May 20th, 2010 - 56 comments
Hone Harawira does not want to vote for the ‘don’t be jealous’ budget and he doesn’t think the Maori Party will be standing true to its principles or supporters if it does. Harawira sought permission to vote against the Budget. Tariana Turia, who is awfully comfortable in the back of her Crown limo, refused. Let’s hope Harawira has the courage cross the floor anyway.
Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, April 6th, 2010 - 12 comments
The Maori Party was established to win the right for iwi to have what they believe are their rights to use the economic potential of the foreshore and seabed. National’s offer does not deliver on that. Will the Maori Party fold? Early indications are mixed. Hone Harawira will stand strong but a patsy question from rahui Katene last Thursday suggests the leadership might be willing to roll over.
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 pm, February 28th, 2010 - 55 comments
Former ACT Deputy Leader Muriel Newman has launched into a racist tirade that amounts to ‘bloody bludging Maoris’. Incredibly, Rodney Hide agrees, saying that Maori have a culture of dependency. To ACT, poverty isn’t the result of an unequal and unfair economic system, it’s a lifestyle choice. They say Maori are morally deficient and to blame for their poverty.
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, February 4th, 2010 - 22 comments
So, John Key and Pita Sharples put Hone Harawira in charge of deciding which flag will fly to represent Maori on government buildings on Waitangi Day. Only four options are put up: the New Zealand flag, the New Zealand ensign, the 1835 United Tribes flag, and Tino Rangatiratanga. It was always pretty obvious what the result …
Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, December 8th, 2009 - 7 comments
Key wouldn’t say why he fired Worth, claiming he feared contaminating a police investigation. But he will trample all over a police investigation by saying they shouldn’t prosecute Harawira*. Credibility – fail. *They shouldn’t. OK for me to say that. I’m not PM.
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, December 8th, 2009 - 44 comments
Helmetless Hone: Keen to continue the Hone Harawira saga, One News reported that complaints had been laid over Harawira not wearing a helmet when he rode the motorcycle of a visiting anti-violence campaigner on Parliament’s forecourt. I hope the Police have better things to do than investigate an MP for taking a 50m spin on …
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 7 comments
So Hone Harawira has been readmitted into the fold of the Maori Party. It’s hard to see how excluding him from Parliament until the end of the year is a punishment, given that he has repeatedly said he detests the place (and who can blame him?). It seems more like political convenience for the Maori …
Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, November 25th, 2009 - 8 comments
Via Newsroom [offline], Pita Sharples has confirmed reports of an internal revolt within the Maori Party over its support for National’s ETS. The Maori Party will honour its deal to back National’s emissions trading scheme despite many in the party being opposed to much of the ETS bill, co-leader Pita Sharples has said in a …
Written By: - Date published: 1:57 pm, November 15th, 2009 - 65 comments
I know this point/counterpoint series of posts on Hone Harawira maybe getting a bit tiresome but I have to disagree with the assertion in a couple of recent ones that Harawira has been treated more harshly Bill English and Rodney Hide or, by implication, than a Pakeha in his situation would have. And I think that those …
Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, November 15th, 2009 - 13 comments
Throughout the mana enhancing relationship between the National and Maori parties, we haven’t yet seen a lot of give and take. Well, I guess that’s only half true – we’ve seen a lot of taking for granted by National and a lot of giving concessions by the Maori Party, but none of the other way …
Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, November 14th, 2009 - 74 comments
Whatever argument there is between the hierarchy of the Maori Party and Hone really doesn’t concern me. While I’m sure Kelvin Davis is watching with considerable interest, Hone was elected by the voters up north for being exactly who he is. This isn’t a political row with the over-powering stench of political hypocrisy like recent …
Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, November 13th, 2009 - 38 comments
The Maori Party was never going to be a sustainable political vehicle. No political movement that tries to exist in defiance of the material conditions of its constituents can be, and the economic interests of the wealthy Maori elite and the Maori working class are simply incompatible. The Maori Party has to continually choose which …
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, November 13th, 2009 - 72 comments
Frankly, I don’t appreciate being called a white motherf**ker, by Buddy Mikaere and Hone Harawira. Before you start, that’s not to deny that Pakeha stole vast amounts of Maori resources despite the treaty signed between the Crown and iwi, and in spite of the Crown’s own laws. The thief – the Crown – and the victims – the …
Written By: - Date published: 6:59 am, November 13th, 2009 - 54 comments
There’s no question that Hone Harawira’s comments were stupid, but I don’t believe they were racist. For a start, the white mofos reference began in Buddy Mikaere’s email to Harawira, so it’s not entirely inappropriate that those words were used in return. I quite often, when replying to emails or blog comments, use the words …
Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, November 11th, 2009 - 111 comments
OK, so Hone says If I should be suspended for my language, he [Phil Goff] and his mates should be lined up against the wall and shot. Just as saying something about [blue] mofos does not mean therefore all [blues] are mofos, the comment about Goff is not an incitement nor is it meant other than …
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, November 11th, 2009 - 30 comments
I don’t know if the two are related but this is my theory du jour. John Key keeps washing his hands of both his own ministers and MPs and his coalition partners’ MPs. It seems like no misbehaviour, from rorts to racism can make a dent in Mr Easy Going. Meanwhile, Phil Goff is having …
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, November 11th, 2009 - 18 comments
Check out this press release: Maori Leader Rejects Harawira Apology as “Embarrassing” and issues his own apology Ngapuhi Leader and senior relative to Hone Harawira, David Rankin, says he is embarrassed by the apology the MP has given. “Harawira has disgraced our iwi with his gutter language, and has casued more racial division in New …
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 pm, November 10th, 2009 - 92 comments
There has been much furore today over Hone Harawira’s latest comment that: If I should be suspended for my language, he [Phil Goff] and his mates should be lined up against the wall and shot. I thought the comment was appropriate in the circumstances, as a response to Phil Goff calling for him to be …
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, November 10th, 2009 - 81 comments
We all use language sometimes that’s too stong and we regret. Hone Harawira apologised today over his choice of words in the “white motherf**kers” email. Unfortunately, he followed that up by saying Phil Goff “should be lined up against the wall and shot” over the foreshore and seabed law. It looks to me like his …
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 64 comments
Not content with living in a fantasy world, Rodney Hide had to spend taxpayer money to visit Disney World as well. OK, actually it was Universal Studios but it looks increasingly like Hide’s $50,000 trip kindly paid for by you and me was actually nothing more than a world tour with his girlfriend. Sure, they …
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