PM takes swipe at Hone Harawira
KATE CHAPMAN
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Prime Minister John Key has taken a swipe at firebrand MP Hone Harawira, saying there was no point carping on and not being part of the solution.
An official complaint was laid against Harawira by his fellow Maori Party MPs after he wrote a column in the Sunday Star Times criticising his party's closeness to National. He said the party was not listening to the people who voted it in.
Key said he believed there had been many sucesses in the Maori Party's relationship with National but the partnership would have its critics.
"I say to the critics what can you achieve from opposition, and the answer is nothing. You achieve things when you are part of the solution not when you are solely carping on about the problems," he said in a speech at Ratana, near Whanganui.
He gave the first two minutes of the speech in Te Reo and said he spent all yesterday afternoon practising but wished he'd done more.
After the speech Key told media the nature of Government was compromise, but the achievements for Maori over the last two years had occurred because of National's relationship with the Maori Party.
"As a unified team we've made great progress for New Zealanders and I've enjoyed the relationship we've had with the Maori Party."
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples agreed.
"We had three years throwing stones and while we did awaken a lot of issues we never really achieved too much (in opposition)."
Harawira was not at Ratana on Monday though he was there yesterday and met with the other Maori Party MPs.
Sharples said there was no rift between the party and Harawira.
"We still are a team we just happen to disagree over a few things and the media snapped that up and made quite a soap opera about it but that's fine."
Key said he received a warm reception from the people during the celebrations for the anniversary of the birth of the founder of the Ratana church today despite the group re-affirming its support of Labour.
"It's had a long standing political relationship with Labour and that's clearly still very strong but I think we're actually making good progress and good inroads and people were very polite, they listened, they clapped at the end so it's not all bad," he said.
Labour leader Phil Goff said the Ratana church had expressed its support for a Labour government.
"I think the welcome today was a very warm welcome... they expressed to me their support for Labour, their desire to see a Labour Government and I think the speeches this year were far more positive than I've heard for several years."
Church members were prompted to renew their support for Labour because of a lack of change under the National Government, Goff said.
Church spokesman Adrian Rurawhe said the church's members were splitting their votes but the majority still voted for Labour in the party vote.
"The chairman has given encouragement to the Labour Party... what you saw on the marae today was a strengthening of that relationship of Ratana and the Labour Party."
Earlier, Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia told media her party's decision to form a partnership with the National Government was made jointly by all five of the party's MPs, including Hone Harawira.
"That was a decision that was made by all five members of the caucus and the party at that time and this is not about right and left wing politics for the Maori party... we're not a right or a left wing party."
The Maori Party was committed to working with whoever the Government was to achieve changes for Maori, Mrs Turia said.
Mrs Turia said she would let her electorate decide at the next election whether the party had done enough for Maori.
In opposition to Mr Harawira's claims that the party was not listening to Maori Mrs Turia said she regularly spoke with people in her electorate.
"They understand that as a minister I'm really, really busy but they know that I am only a phone call or an email away and I do communicate with them."
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Cullen's sidekick #22 - welcome back.
Are you the mastermind that persuaded Phil Goff to get out the hair dye? If so, it was a political masterstroke. Phil Goff is instantly turned into a 20 something yuppie, ready to lead Labour for the next 30 years. What next - Darker skin and Phil coming out as having Maui as a direct ancestor and a public conversion to Ratana and a tilt at the Maori party leadership??
Seems like Hone has a lot of supporters in these columns. Perhaps they should push for a republic and install their hero as its first dictator. I wonder how long the honeymoon period would last.
Hone's right. All they got for selling out the environment and giving rich guys tax breaks while gst went up disproportionately on poor people was foreshore repeal without anything better in its' place. Got back at Labour, and stabbed the Greens in the back for a superficial, pryric (sp?) victory....bad deal, most of us know it by now, and big mouth Hone won't politely shut up....make deals with the devil, and who gets the better?
blonde #80
The Maori party will still be there. They are all electorate MPs for the Maori seats.
Most people wrongly believe that getting rid of MMP will get rid of the Maori Party. Only Maori can get rid of the Maori Party.
It will however get rid of both Act and the Greens.
I thought we lived in a democracy?
Votes are personal - you don't get told who to vote for by your church or anyone else!!
That kind of thing happens in Zimbabwe, not NZ!
It happens in The USA and Australia. Isn't National backed by the Exclusive Brethren?
While Harawira's racist anti-Pakeha rants sicken me, he is making some very good points about how little the Maori party has done for Maori aside from reversing the Foreshore and Seabed Bill and Ora Whenua - these have been bought with the Maori party's silence on the serious issues of across the board poverty regardless of race.
He Maori ahau #79 The Maori party is bigger than Hone and Maori shouldn't be punished because of one man's, or one iwi's ideology. Kia kaha te pati Maori. Tu tonu, Tu Kaha.
The problem is that it isn't just one iwi that support Hawara. It is the majority of his electorate that includes all Ngapuhi who choose the racist Te tai Tokerau electoral option and Ngati Whatua north of the Harbour bridge (although I suspect less support from the latter)who choose the racist Te tai Tokerau electoral option. It is hard to relate to Maori in such an area when the majority have made it clear with their vote that they hate and despise you for nothing you have done but may well be the actions of their very own white ancestors.
The latest 'Listener' has the following article by Karl du Fresne. It is well worth a read as some further background regarding our appalling race relations and the ongoing need for Hone and his ilk to stand against current inequalities. Kia kaha Hone.
"The story of Pouakani doesn’t echo through our social history like Bastion Point or Parihaka, but it’s another important symbol of Government dishonour.
It was pumice land, good for nothing – miles from anywhere, inaccessible by road, infested with rabbits and covered with tussock and stunted scrub. Yet it was this land on the volcanic plateau that dispossessed Maori from the southern Waira rapa were persuaded to accept in exchange for a resource of almost inestimable value: Lake Wairarapa and the surrounding wetlands.
For want of a better analogy, it was like swapping a fully optioned late-model Lexus for a rusting Morris Marina with bald tyres, a blown head gasket and no warrant of fitness." (Full article available online in a couple of weeks)
I would encourage Hone to keep doing what he is doing. Hopefully the outcome will be the end of the Maori Party.
We dont need or want the Maori Party, the country does not benefit at all from having the Maori Party in parliament.
Go Hone, destroy the Maori Party once and for all
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Kick him out of the party. He has done nothing but drive the wedge further between new zealanders and maori. There is no excuse for racism and he clearly has racist views.