Why are Turia & Sharples cuddling up to Key?

22 comments on “Why are Turia & Sharples cuddling up to Key? ”

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1. Daveo 1

   25 January 2011 at 10:32 am

   Since Harry Walker’s gone as MP chief of staff the MP backroom ops have gone to shit (and they weren’t that good to start with). I’ve heard they’ve been getting support from National’s team especially in media. Which will be why they’re so on message with the Nats.
   • Bright Red 1.1

     25 January 2011 at 10:58 am

     yeah, they’ve lost a lot of their backroom people I hear. People who didn’t go into political work to be writing speeches about how tax cuts for the rich are great or to be making excuses to the media on why their MPs won’t front when they vote against the position on the ETS that they articualted just days earlier.
2. Pascal's bookie 2

   25 January 2011 at 10:58 am

   “Earlier in the day, Key had said he didn’t think this was going to happen. ”

   Whatever. There are plenty of criticisms that can be made of the mP leadership, but thinking that Key has them anywhere but over a barrel misses a huge part of the picture.

   If the mP is to survive at all, in any form, it needs to show to the major parties that it can be trusted in coalition.

   The things thay have gained by being in coalition may not be much, and they may not meet the expectations of the mP base, and they may not even meet the expectations of the mP leadership for all we know; but unless they can construct a narrative that clearly says National hasn’t lived up to their end of the agreement then they are stuck with it as far as I can tell.
3. Tracey 3

   25 January 2011 at 10:58 am

   Whanau Ora, the recent new prison initiative to transition from prison to society? Are these not achievements unachieveable outside Govt?
   • The Voice of Reason 3.1

     25 January 2011 at 11:08 am

     Well, it’s a bit of a stretch to call Whanau Ora an acheivement seeing as it doesn’t exist yet and nobody seeems to know what it is anyway. And Key apparerntly thinks the prison initiative is to transition maori from society to prison, so no credit there, either.
   • Blighty 3.2

     25 January 2011 at 11:34 am

     Whanau Ora hasn’t done anything. It’s months late just identifying the providers. And the money is coming out of existing service funding – so, Whanau Ora has to prove that it is better than what was there. Not proved.

     New prison initiatives are welcome (and could potentially be achieved by talks from outside government) but that doesn’t excuse the Maori Party supporting the building of more prisons and the lengthening of sentences, let alone all the other awful stuff they’ve voted for.
   • Deadly_NZ 3.3

     25 January 2011 at 2:34 pm

     Well they probably would not need the prisons if the government had not made life so hard for the young and unemployed, But there again, as there are a disproportionate amount of Young Maori in the prison system, then I suppose the Maori Party can say they have done something, by getting them a nice new shiny prison to keep more of their young people in.
     • Colonial Viper 3.3.1

       25 January 2011 at 3:02 pm

       by getting them a nice new shiny prison to keep more of their young people in.

       And even better if the prison is a PPP which directs prison profits made straight back to Maori business interests.
4. millsy 4

   25 January 2011 at 10:59 am

   Lets see them for what they are. Matua Toms.
5. ghostwhowalksnz 5

   25 January 2011 at 10:59 am

   Key is the one who gives them the ‘keys’ to the ministerial baubles.
   Remember the new house Sharples could afford once he became a minister!
6. Anne 6

   25 January 2011 at 11:06 am

   Have no sympathy for the leadership of the Maori Party. Indeed I hope they eventually go down in flames. The MP as far as I can see was created for negative reasons. It was essentially the ‘brain child’ of Tariana Turia who set out to spite Labour because they wouldn’t let her have her own way. That is entirely the wrong basis on which to form a new party. Without a firm set of principles and beliefs – be it based on the ideology of the left or right – and a set of concrete policies and solutions to reflect those beliefs, then it is doomed to failure.

   The fact, too, that they have been so willing to drink at the NAct trough with hardly a glance back at their own people, suggests to me: not only have they lost their way, but the baubles and beads turned out to be far more important.
   • travellerev 6.1

     25 January 2011 at 11:55 am

     Hear hear!
7. randal 7

   25 January 2011 at 11:18 am

   Pita keeps saying this is the last chance for Maoridom but what he really means this is the last chance for him.
8. Colonial Viper 8

   25 January 2011 at 11:35 am

   and the fact that only 57% of working-wage Maori are in work.

   Minor typo above.

   Sharples and Turia must be confident of their support in their own base to do this. At least that is what they are trying to portray to Harawira and his faction. Also publicly at least, no signs of reconciliation.

   What’s Hone’s next move.
   • Bored 8.1

     25 January 2011 at 7:31 pm

     Once you get offside with Turiana there is no forgiveness, ask Helen. She will dance with the devil to get you.
     • Jum 8.1.1

       25 January 2011 at 9:52 pm

       Helen Clark helped Turia get her parliamentary wings, protecting her from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; then Tariana flew off to JKeyll and Hide and shat on the Labour Party. When’s duck shooting season? I’m not surprised Turia was last cab off the rank; why harbour a asp?
9. fabregas4 9

   25 January 2011 at 1:24 pm

   All this stuff about how you don’y get anything done in opposition is not an an excuse to fall in line with whomever is in power. Plenty of example sin history where opposition was the correct and morally and ethically only thing to do. The Maori party could by extension of this theory fall in line with the government of the day when the land sales (confiscation) was at its greatest, the Maori party would have supported the Springbok Tour too and would support a government which sees Maori as second class citizens, unemployable and on the automatic road to prison – oh it does!.
10. marty mars 10

    25 January 2011 at 1:28 pm

    sharples and turia have hitched themselves to the gnats and they will not move. They will go down with that ship and good I say – the sooner the better. They aren’t the maori party – they are just the current leadership and their time is nearly over. But if per chance they are the maori party then we need a Left Maori Party ASAP for all the disgruntled maori party ex-supporters.
11. Chris73 11

    25 January 2011 at 7:47 pm

    Because they quite like having some power
    They remember when dear leader called them the last cab off the rank
    Treaty settlements are up during Nationals term
    Take your pick 🙂
12. George.com 12

    25 January 2011 at 9:52 pm

    I am wondering whether the Maori Party is simply about race & cultural identity, simply about being Maori, rather than any significant focus on the material factors of work, unemployment, income etc. The racial & cultural identity things have being valued more than material realities for Maori. The lack of material progress is what Hone Harawira is picking up, and as I understand it, being told about in his electorate.
13. Jum 13

    25 January 2011 at 9:55 pm

    I’m not surprised Turia was last cab off the rank; why harbour an asp?

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1. Gabriella Turek: posted on 25 January 2011 at 7:19 am

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