Speak up, Pita. We can’t hear you

20 comments on “Speak up, Pita. We can’t hear you ”

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1. Santi 1

   2 February 2010 at 8:24 am

   Don’t you worry. The silence of Maori Party MPs is vert cheap to buy and Key has deep pockets.

   Just give the buggers a few meals, drinks, and the baubles of office and their silence is assured.
   • Mr Magoo 1.1

     2 February 2010 at 11:04 am

     In actual fact Key has every right to tell him to shut it. Although I notice that disgruntled jerk from the national radio referred to it multiple times as “sooth the maori party”

     He is the associate minister for the portfolio. The policy has been done and dusted and the time to speak out has long since past.

     He is now backtracking and pretending that is was just about “Kaupapa Maori” only. I am sorry but that is a load of crap and too late also.

     Amateur, spineless and a turncoat. Just like I said he would be before the election. The only reason he spoke at all was because he thought he was in danger of bleeding votes over this.

     While I despise National/ACT policies on what they are, the leaders of the maori party are worse. These government backed Kupapa types has been misrepresenting Maori since before the treaty was signed and nothing has changed.
     And the worst of it is the red necks then turn around and use them as stereotypical examples of Maori to justify their views…

     That party had a real opportunity to shine for Maori and make some real inroads for them. Maori DO need a voice in government and it needs to NOT be absorbed by a major party.
     All but gone now. Soon it will be back to good old Labour and their token gestures.

     /rant
2. Tigger 2

   2 February 2010 at 8:27 am

   So the MP voted for a law that will hurt the very people who put them in Parliament. Foot meet shot.
3. mickysavage 3

   2 February 2010 at 8:43 am

   Interesting update. Farrer and Whaleoil are trying to spin it that the result is bad for Labour because of the support level for Goff. Given his previous standing in the preferred PM list and (admittedly a big if) if the figures are comparable they are not that bad.
4. lukas 4

   2 February 2010 at 9:07 am

   Marty, as the writers at The Standard were so keen to point out leading up to the 2008 election, polls are hardly reliable…. take this one as an example… http://www.3news.co.nz/Key-has-strong-support-from-Maori-voters—poll/tabid/419/articleID/139631/Default.aspx

   The main findings for you…

   Mr Key was most preferred prime minister on 31 percent, followed by Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples (12 percent), New Zealand First leader Winston Peters (7 percent), Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia (5 percent) and Mr Goff (5 percent).

   Labour Party voters among respondents were asked if Mr Goff was the best person to lead the party – 36 percent said yes while 48 percent disagreed and 16 percent did not know.
   • lprent 4.1

     2 February 2010 at 11:55 am

     Marty, as the writers at The Standard were so keen to point out leading up to the 2008 election, polls are hardly reliable

     If you remember what I and others actually wrote rather than what you care to remember…

     We said that polls have inherent issues about representation when you’re looking at them for absolute numbers. There are a number of reasons at the methodlogical level with the sample representing the population. You cannot look at them and say this represents the actual result. You can’t look at two polls done by different companies with different methodologies and compare them directly. You should deduct the margins of error from the delta of changes between polls before looking for changes.

     In other words you shouldn’t do any of the things that TV and printed news and pundits tend to do with polls. The way they treat them is utter crap.

     But what is interesting in polls is trends over time. Historically the MP has kept going up what polls have been done with Maori. Now we have one poll showing a considerable drop, well outside the margins for error (I haven’t looked at the details). That is interesting. If further polls show the same trend continuing then the MP have a hell of a political problem – probably related to being in government with NACT.

     So your statement is bullshit the way that you framed it.
5. tc 5

   2 February 2010 at 9:22 am

   More of the same from the party with the giant yellow and black “L” signs all over them……it could stand for Learner/Lazy/Lapdog or if they keep licking JK’s hand…Losers.

   Sharples will be a masterclass in backflip polictics in the run in to election 2011 as one by one he’ll have to distant the MP from policies they backed but don’t benefit maori.

   Welcome to politics……not the first time an out of touch leader with historical grudges against their old party allows that to influence every decision…..her legacy is an albatross around the MP’s neck……emission trading/ACC are next once you’ve tried to slime your way out of this mess associate education minister.
6. Hine Te Po 6

   2 February 2010 at 11:12 am

   Under Labour, the Maori dog has become corpulent and lazy.

   A huge fat golden lab that wags its tail joyfully at the words of its colonial master. Its loyalty is without question as it loves to feast on the baubles and bones of the middle-class.

   There is no walking this dog on the beach, however, as it would rather wallow in the dirt of its private estate.
7. randal 7

   2 February 2010 at 12:14 pm

   I did hear Pita speak up.
   what he is afraid of is all the Northland schools that will now be compared to the rest of new zealand.
   he cant handle that.
8. tc 8

   2 February 2010 at 1:35 pm

   It’s going to be entertaining watching the likes of sharples/flavell etc trying to behave like a political force when the stapled one has finally shuffled off.

   The legacy’s not good at all and who’s willing to bet that it’ll implode on the back of something like a certain MP going independant simply to save face……not something the current leaders can see over the backseat of the limo’s and bellamys menu to consider.

   All that in a single sellout term……now that’s high achievers for you.
   • the pinkpostman 8.1

     2 February 2010 at 3:27 pm

     How can a party that is by nature on the Left support this cunning Right -Wing government? How much longer are they going to suffer insult after insult. They should have moved away over the refusal of Hide and Key to allow Maori seats on the super council.. How much longer is their rebel MP going to do as Auntie Turia tells him. ? I believe that the Maori party is about to implode ,what then.? A golden opportunity has been lost to the Maori people .Im not only sad but angry. The only chance they may have is to dump their leaders and go over to Labour as a Maori Party ginger group on a Left coalition.
9. Anne 9

   2 February 2010 at 2:05 pm

   John Key has written a letter to 350,000 mums and dads explaining the National Standards and why it is a good thing.

   Okay JK, who’s paying for this letter campaign? Are you paying for it? Or is the tax-payer? If it’s the tax-payer then is there any reason why a political party, eg. Labour, can’t send a letter out to 350,000 mums and dads, at the tax-payers’ expense, telling them why it’s not a good thing to force school’s to adopt an untried and unproven standard test?

   And what about the Maori Party? Will Pita and co. stay in hiding because they’re scared of losing their baubles of office if they dare to speak out?
   • lukas 9.1

     2 February 2010 at 2:35 pm

     That is close to the dumbest comment I’ve seen sorry.

     All parties in Government send out information on the programs and policy that they are initiating. How else are people meant to know about it and learn about it?

     Did you complain when the WFF information was sent out? What about KiwiSaver? Cervical cancer vaccine programs?
     • Mr Magoo 9.1.1

       2 February 2010 at 3:43 pm

       I am sorry but its pretty obvious that you don’t read too many forums.

       There is no way that comment is even in the running for the dumbest comment.

       Not that I agree with either of you. But that is the sort of disagreeable person I am…
       • lukas 9.1.1.1

         2 February 2010 at 3:47 pm

         Perhaps you are correct… let me correct myself, it is close to the dumbest comment I’ve seen today.
10. Anne 10

    2 February 2010 at 3:42 pm

    Lukas. All parties in government DO NOT send out letters to thousands of voters at the drop of a hat and you know it. Sure, there are occasions when information is delivered to voters via pamphlets etc. (or even in letter form) but that is almost always to advise individuals of new entitlements such as WFF and Kiwisaver – or during the course of an election campaign.

    This is a political attempt – no matter how it is wrapped – to gain the hearts and minds of mums and dads about a highly suspect policy which has been dammed by many teachers, academics and indeed school boards. And what’s more I suspect the $200,000 cost of the exercise is being borne by the tax-payer.

    I object… and be dammed with you!
    • lukas 10.1

      2 February 2010 at 3:46 pm

      So if you agree with the program being promoted its fine?
    • Mr Magoo 10.2

      2 February 2010 at 3:48 pm

      I object and be dammed with you!

      You forgot to end with “, sir!”

      Victorian cliches aside, I agree that ministry leaflets should not be propaganda in any way and further that ministries should be paranoid about this fact.

      This would fall far short of that standard. But then other ones might also. Some of the labour pamphlets were timed rather suspiciously.
11. Anne 11

    2 February 2010 at 6:48 pm

    More Shakespearian I would have thought Mr Magoo 😀

    Btw. Grant Robertson has written a good post on the National Standards debacle over on Red Alert.

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1. Charles Paringatai: posted on 2 February 2010 at 2:31 pm

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