Maori Party Leadership
September 11th, 2009 at 6:56 am by David FarrarThe Herald reports:
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia is set to reverse her decision to retire at the next election and instead stay on to advance her political agenda.
Mrs Turia confirmed yesterday that she was “seriously reconsidering” her decision and discussing it with her family.
She announced her retirement at the last election, saying she would step down at the end of this term.
This is not totally surprising, nor unwelcome. As the Herald notes:
The Herald understands Mrs Turia’s goal is to see her whanau ora policy embedded.
Whanau ora would bring together funding from various Government departments – health, education, justice, housing, social welfare – and funnel it directly to families in need of state assistance, rather than separately through different bureaucracies.
Mrs Turia is raising her 8-year-old grandchild, so the pressure of working in Parliament is a consideration.
If she stays on, it will resolve the Maori Party’s leadership dilemma, with no clear successor in its ranks.
The lack of a clear successor is a real issue for the Maori Party.
By 2014, one would expect both Sharples and Turia to retire. Turia will be 70 and Sharples 73.
The three other Maori Party MPs are all good constituent MPs, but neither Flavell or Katene (at this stage) have a national profile. Hone Harawira does, but I imagine he would agree leadership would be too stifling to him.
So how does the Maori Party get into Parliament, a couple of MPs who can take over in 2014? They are most unlikely to get any List MPs in 2011. And I don’t expect any retirements from the three other constituency MPs.
Hence they need to get their future leaders to either enter in 2011 by winning one or both of the two Maori seats they do not hold. If Derek Fox finally won Ikaroa-Rawhiti, he would be a logical contender. Mind you he will be 64 in 2011 and 67 in 2014.
The other option is that you look for the future leaders to replace Turia and Sharples in their own seats. This means however they go straight into the leadership as new MPs, which could be challenging.
September 11th, 2009 at 7:17 am
“The lack of a clear successor is a real issue for the Maori Party” hey Tau – are you reading this???
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Will the leader of the Maori Party tackle appalling child abuse stats?
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Or we could just get rid of the Maori seats and replace them with Chinese ones.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 7:59 am
I suppose the silver lining is that even by 2035, both Mrs Turia and Mr Sharples will be younger than Jim Anderton is now. Is Mr Anderton 90 yet?
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Could Flavell or Katene be leader? Not having a National profile at the moment isn’t a barrier if they can build one. Or are you politely saying that you don’t think either of them are leadership material?
[DPF: To be honest I don't know]
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Jim who?
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 8:43 am
One suspects that a factor in Turia’s reconsideration might be that she is enjoying being part of the National-led government, in which she is listened to with respect and in which she is able to do some positive things for Maoridom.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 9:26 am
S.russell
“in which she is listened to with respect and in which she is able to do some positive things for Maoridom.”
What positive things has she done for Mowree?
Done anything to curb the out of control crime rate…….Nope.
Done anything to curb the intergenerational welfare epidemic…..Nope
Done anything to curb the appalling child homicide rate…..Nope
Done anything to curb the raging obesity and diabetes rates among Mowree…..Nope
Done anything to move Mowree towards accepting that their fate rests largely in their own hands…….Nope
Turia is sticking around for the baubles, in many ways Mowree leadership has not come very far at all from the days of the first European settlers who managed to tame the natives with a few shiny beads and the odd bottle of booze.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 9:43 am
bb stated “Done anything to move Mowree towards accepting that their fate rests largely in their own hands…….Nope”
Oh no, the MP aren’t ready to let whitey off the hook anytime soon.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Maybe a little harsh bb, she has surely worked on some of those things, but the general gist of what you are saying is right. Maori need real leaders, people prepared to face up publicly to the major problems they have. It mightn’t be conducive to a long term in parliament but maybe being in parliament isn’t necessary. It mightn’t be a natural Maori (or politician’s) way of doing things, to rock the waka, but someone needs to splash some hard truths around. To lead.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Sharples is an old-fashioned academic lefty albeit with a great personality, Turia is a deep thinker and seems prepared to consider ideas outside the square.
Her whanau ora programme, while different in a number of important respects, has similarities in concept to the direct delivery proposals of Roger Douglas
The Douglas approach is for existing state funding to be delivered from the bottom up via education vouchers/ health cover policies etc to individuals who then decide on the suppliers (schools, health providers, accident and unemployment cover). In this way Maori citizens for example, could purchase from Maori suppliers of education, health and welfare services if they believed these had merit for their individual requirements.
Whereas Turia’s concept seems to be more along the lines of some Maori agencies capturing funding from the top, as currently done by all govt agencies, and then dispensing as seen fit to ‘the needy ones’
There is no bargaining at budget time for racial apportionment under the Douglas program, everyone is simply a citizen. I guess apportionment under Turia’s program could be argued as non-racial if the existing level of Maori ‘clients’ of govt social policy spending represented the transfer to her super-agency. But at the end of the day it would still be a big bureaucratic top-down provider plus the addition of tribal elite authoritarianism
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Cerium
It may sound harsh, the truth often does.
As long as some of us cower away from asking Maori leadership the hard questions the longer the atrocity that is Maori child killing will continue.
We simply have to stop being so fucking PC with Maori, what is evident is that the current “leadership” is failing miserably, there are many who would feel uncomfortable with what is required, there are many (Greens and other hard left commies) who are still stupid enough to think that tossing money at these low life is the way to change things.
Our social agencies CAN identify those at risk, if the Greens were really keen to do something about the Maori underclass then they would get out of the way of the authorities and support the heavy handed approach that is required.
What we (and like it or not it this problem affects all of us in some way or another) need to do is listen to people like Willie Jackson (as racist as he is) and John Tamahere, these two have some great ideas when it comes to dealing with the issues.
We should also listen to people like Michael Laws when he says that we (the tax payer) should provide state funded sterilisations for vermin like the Kahui’s and Kuka’s, the state should also step in and permanently remove any children who they deem to be at risk.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 10:37 am
“we (the tax payer) should provide state funded sterilisations”
Voluntary? Or enforced for those deemed to be unworthy to be parents?
“permanently remove any children who they deem to be at risk.”
It does this now doesn’t it? It must be difficult trying to determine which are at temporary risk and which are likely to be at permanent risk. It’s a huge thing forcibly removing children from parents. There is also the problem of how the removed children are cared for, it’s not easy finding suitable places as it is. Some kids get passed from home to facility to home and just accumulate more problems as they go.
Any measures like this would need to be across the board and not specific to any ethnicity.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 10:41 am
What about Willie Jackson?. He is always harping on about how great the Maori Party is and his views on life come straight out of their handbook. Willie would slot right in, he’s a fruitcake like the rest of them.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 10:43 am
“We should also listen to people like Michael Laws when he says that we (the tax payer) should provide state funded sterilisations for vermin like the Kahui’s and Kuka’s, the state should also step in and permanently remove any children who they deem to be at risk.”
I would think anyone who advocates listening to Michael Laws has ruled themselves out of being a part of what happens on planet Earth. The ravings of an aging shock jock, frantically whipping up controversy in a desperate attempt to gain public attention as compensation for his inability to maintain a meaningful personal relationship, are the last thing this country needs to listen to.
As for the actual suggestions. State funded sterilisation sounds great, but you really think the Kahuis and Kukas would take advantage of it? No way – kids are a psychic crutch to them, which then get abused when the reality doesn’t match the dream. You can move on to forced sterilisation if you want to … but that’s a yawn. As for removing children at risk – great! Then what? Where are all the foster parents for these badly scarred (in mind and body) kids magically going to appear from? The simplistic “the state should do more” argument falls down when you actually have to cash it out into real world practices.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 10:43 am
the 200k a year she earns probably acted as an incentive.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 11:36 am
While he seems too radical at present Hone Harawira seems the natural heir to the leadership to me. He is possibly the best orator in the House in both English and Maori.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Whanau Ora smacks of Apartheid, with taxpayers fronting up, probably with little accountability.
Nevertheless, I hope that Turia stays on in Parliament – she is making a worthwhile contribution to New Zealand.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
AG
As long as people like you refuse to separate the message from the messenger nothing will change.
“As for the actual suggestions. State funded sterilisation sounds great, but you really think the Kahuis and Kukas would take advantage of it? No way – kids are a psychic crutch to them”
Then you pay them, if you offered them a cash incentive of say $20,000 to be sterilised and a guaranteed benefit for life we could wipe almost wipe out a huge percentage of this problem within one generation.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
“Our social agencies CAN identify those at risk, if the Greens were really keen to do something about the Maori underclass then they would get out of the way of the authorities and support the heavy handed approach that is required.”
…and I thought we were all hoping we’d shrugged off the nanny state. Bring back Stalin.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I applaud any move towards greater personal responsibility and Maori leader’s showing leadership. Many of the comments here suggest that all the problems of Maori are their problems, and of their own cause. What is it do you think? Is it that their primitive culture just refuses to adapt? Or is it a gene that compels them to go this way? Perhaps, they are just not designed for the modern world, and if they refuse our help, what can we do?
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
big bruv,
It was YOU who urged listening to Michael Laws’ views! If the source isn’t relevant to the value of the claims, why even mention him?
As for offering payments for sterilisation – go for it! Here’s an example: http://www.projectprevention.org/
But is it really the role of the State to spend tax dollars on this? I thought we were all small government, “don’t tread on me” types around here? If it’s such a great idea, let the private sector raise the money!
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
That ex teacher Davis from up North currently with Liarbour and not scared to speak the truth would be a good fit for the Maori Party.
His views have not on numerous occasions been in tune with the Liarbour way and place him closer to centre right than centre left.
He would even by a better fit with National than Liarbour.
Overall I would like to see him move to the Maori Party to provide a sucession option.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
“..and if they refuse our help, what can we do?..”
the ‘white mans’ burden’..eh blackmoss..?
(how quaint..!..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
It is just as I thought, Sam Buchanan and others don’t really care about Maori at all, they are quiet happy to see them fail as long as they vote Labour.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
philu: aye, absolutely…
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
You’re on to it, Blue Coast.
Vote:September 11th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
“Sam Buchanan and others don’t really care about Maori at all, they are quiet happy to see them fail as long as they vote Labour.”
Come on Big Bruv, you can’t seriously be suggesting I have ever advocated that anyone, ever, or for any reason, vote for the pack of low-life pond scum that leads the Labour party.
[DPF: Assuming it is the same Sam. I direct people to http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/23664 where it is pretty clear he is not Labour. If memory serves correct it was Sam's place that the Police raided in connection to Urerewa - but he wasn't arrested himself]
Vote: