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Hone’s motives grow murkier

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, January 21st, 2011 - 17 comments

Why did Hone Harawira pick a fight if he wasn’t prepared to see it out? One News last night had him saying he wants to stay with the Maori Party. Patrick Gower reckons Hone’s assault on the leadership is all about building cred to take over next year but Hone’s saying he would support Te Ururoa Flavell for male co-leader. Curiouser and curiouser.

Hone the victim or the playmaker?

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, January 20th, 2011 - 106 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.

Maori Party MPs turn on Hone

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, January 19th, 2011 - 101 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.

Hone: Maori Party has lost its way

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, January 18th, 2011 - 61 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.

Sykes on neoliberalism & the iwi elite

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, December 15th, 2010 - 18 comments

Annette Sykes recently delivered the annual Bruce Jesson Lecture concerning ‘The Politics of the Brown Table’. Much of her address is a harsh critique of the so called ‘iwi elite’ and their neo liberal agenda. In my opinion her assessments are true and justified. Without doubt neo liberalism undermines Maori efforts for self determination

Time for Turia to go

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 11th, 2010 - 65 comments

Labour has opened the door on cross party negotiations to achieve a true consensus on the foreshore.  But Tariana Turia is too locked in to ancient personal hatreds to do anything but reject the offer.  In doing so she has become a huge obstacle to progress on the very goals that she claims to support.  It’s time for Turia to step down.

No closure on the foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 12:43 pm, December 9th, 2010 - 49 comments

For a while it looked like the Nats’ Marine and Coastal Areas Bill was going to represent a successful and enduring solution to the foreshore debate in NZ.  But Maori support evaporated.  Now the new Bill has suffered a further massive blow to its credibility.  Labour is pulling its support…

What would a National win mean in 2011?

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 pm, December 6th, 2010 - 49 comments

In my final post I look at the possible influence coalition partners could have on a future National government. Even if Labour loses in 2011, an outright win for right-wing economic doctrine is not necessarily on the cards.

Unravelling at both ends

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, November 26th, 2010 - 42 comments

The new foreshore and seabed deal is going sour for the government at both ends. The Maori Party is in a state of virtual civil war with the fundi faction led by Hone Harawira gaining support against Tariana Turia’s sell-out faction. Meanwhile, National is feeling the heat as ACT targets its redneck vote.

Due diligence on Whanau Ora?

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, November 18th, 2010 - 10 comments

Back in April Marty G raised questions about the accountability of Whanau Ora providers.  The fiasco of the Taeaomanino Trust shows that those concerns were well founded.  Why has $1 million in funding been awarded to a Trust with an extremely chequered history, and that is the subject of an open Police investigation?  Is this an example of the kind of accountability that the government promised for Whanau Ora?

Finlayson losing it

Written By: - Date published: 7:08 am, November 17th, 2010 - 92 comments

Is the interminable tangled mess of the foreshore and seabed issue getting to Chris Finlayson?  Something certainly is, because he’s clearly losing it.  For the Treaty Negotiations Minister to tell a group of Maori protesters to “go to hell” is about as idiotic as it gets.

Charging for the foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, November 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments

I don’t know about you, but I have certainly been confused about ACT’s move to insert a last-minute clause into the new Marine and Coastal Areas (Takutai Moana) Bill (proposed replacement for the Foreshore and Seabed Act). Canterbury legal academic David Round sets out some of the issues involved.  With deep divisions within Maoridom, and a growing conservative backlash, this mess isn’t going away any time soon…

Turia vs the Maori Party Left

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 1st, 2010 - 41 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.

On the foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 3:21 pm, October 30th, 2010 - 11 comments

Seems like the Maori Party conference is off to a rocky start.  Likely to get even rockier as they move on to the main event today, the vexed issue of the foreshore and seabed.  The differences between the existing Act and the proposed replacement Bill are mostly symbolic.  Is a symbolic change enough for the Maori Party?

Harawira off foreshore committee

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.

Labour policy Maori policy

Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, October 23rd, 2010 - 20 comments

In a press release last week Tariana Turia claimed that Labour’s new policy directions are all Maori Party policies.  That puts the Maori Party in an interesting position after the next election.  Will the major party that they support be dictated by their policies, Labour’s policies, as Turia claims?  Or will their support be dictated by other, non-policy factors?

ACT – one law for all?

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, October 15th, 2010 - 19 comments

Hillary Calvert introduced an amendment this week to change the Marine and Coastal Act.  In keeping with Act’s philosophy of One Rule For All it denies Maori the right to charge for access to beaches, whilst allowing current private owners to (continue to) charge access fees.

Stable government

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, September 20th, 2010 - 44 comments

John Key and the Nats are failing to provide the stable government that New Zealanders require – and vote for.  His coalition partners are both self destructing.  Interesting times.

Some thoughts on ACT

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 18th, 2010 - 81 comments

One way or another ACT’s troubles are going to ripple through the entire political discourse.

So what’s likely to happen with Garrett?

And what does it mean for everyone else?

A Busy Week In Politics

Written By: - Date published: 11:41 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 19 comments

It’s been a very big week this week, so I thought I’d do a round-up, just so we don’t forget some of the ‘lesser’ lights that may have been big news had we not had so much to go on…

Hone stands by principles on foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, September 14th, 2010 - 52 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.

An open letter to the Maori Party from Dayle Takitimu

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, September 9th, 2010 - 14 comments

The unilateral opening up of our ancestral lands and seas to drilling and mining by this Government is the most significant threat to the survival of our peoples and our way of life we have experienced in this generation. The big question in light of this the struggle is where are the Maori Party?

It’s now or never – Te Ururoa

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, September 7th, 2010 - 33 comments

It’s a little disturbing to hear Te Ururoa Flavell saying that the Maori Party isn’t really satisfied with National’s new foreshore and seabed bill but will vote for it for now and will re-negotiate a new deal in the future. He’s dreaming. Both major parties have every incentive to consider the issue closed. With the Maori Party supporting the law, it will be seen as a full and final settlement.

Child murder or protecting gangs?

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 17th, 2010 - 46 comments

The legacy of the Maori Party should not be waving the seabed and foreshore legislation in the air like Neville Chamberlain and rejoicing at the sop given by the Machiavellian elite – not while another child lies dying of a brain injury. The Minister for Maori Affairs should not be working to save illegal buildings on a gang HQ when Maori children are being abused at a sickening rate.

Maori flag over prisons

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, August 5th, 2010 - 36 comments

Pita Sharples wants Maori flag to fly over prisons to raise prisoners’ morale. What a bizarre and useless suggestion. Instead, how about alleviating the poverty that is the main driver of crime?

Key tells Maori Party to shove off

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, July 19th, 2010 - 25 comments

The Maori Party’s support has been a vital element of the sheep’s clothing this rightwing government has worn until now. It has been the fig leaf behind which the true nature of the rightwing agenda of the National Party has hidden. Key’s speech shows, National will no longer be willing to compromise to gain its support and does not particularly want it.

Maori Party sell-out opens opportunity for Greens

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, June 16th, 2010 - 78 comments

Of the political parties in Parliament, only the Greens are likely to oppose the ‘new’ foreshore and seabed law. So, the Greens will be the only place for disaffected Maori Party voters to turn to. And why not? Their values are very similar. I expect that the Greens will make a strong play for the party votes in the Maori seats, winning over a lot of people who feel betrayed by the Maori Party.

Foreshore ends with a whimper

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, June 15th, 2010 - 49 comments

If that is the foreshore and seabed debate effectively resolved we should all take a moment to celebrate. It will be good to have the issue behind us as a country and move on. Given the agreement between National and the Maori Party it looks like the whole debate was mostly about semantics. Meanwhile in practical terms iwi say they want the kind of rights that Ngati Porou secured – under the current Act.

Maori Party caves on foreshore & seabed

Written By: - Date published: 12:44 am, June 15th, 2010 - 39 comments

A foreshore and seabed DEAL that amounts to little more than a symbolic rearranging of the deck chairs is not what the Maori Party was elected to achieve. The deal the Maori Party makes now is the one Maori are stuck with. That’s why the Iwi Leadership Forum is so unexcited about it. The winner here is Key, he played the Maori Party into a corner. The hagiographies will be going to print as I write.

Maori Party going to cave?

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, June 14th, 2010 - 50 comments

The signals are that the Maori Party is going to cave on the foreshore and seabed. National has offered a symbolic repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act while leaving the actual law essentially unchanged. If they cave in, they will have abandoned their primary policy for the sake of power. Let’s hope they don’t. [Updated – it seems an agreement of some kind has been reached]

Maori Party won’t take Key’s F&S deal

Written By: - Date published: 1:34 am, June 12th, 2010 - 42 comments

‘We don’t know if we can support this’.
It’s a very delicate title for the Maori Party’s press release on National’s foreshore and seabed offer but it reveals much. On the one hand, they know they can’t accept a deal that doesn’t give title to iwi. On the other hand, the co-leaders really don’t want to leave government.