Garner on National and Maori Party

Duncan Garner blogs:

So the Maori Party offer Key the seats he needs to get over the line. Without Sharples and co, Key could struggle to get a second term.

He wants a second term – he doesn’t want the t-shirt saying: ‘I was a one term PM.’ And he’s being helped by Labour and particularly tough old Trevor Mallard. Mallard appears to be alienating the Maori Party MPs as each day passes.

I couldn’t help but witness the tension between Mallard and Hone Harawira and Te Ururoa Flavell in Parliament this week. The more Trevor needles them about their relationship with the Nats, the longer the marriage will last.

If Labour wants a shot in 2011, I suggest Goff grab Trevor by the neck and give him a smack in the chops – if he won’t then at least get Tau Henare to throw in the peoples elbow.

Mallard is seriously affecting Labour’s future chances of having any decent relationship with the Maori Party. One Maori Party MP this told me this week, “Trevor can get f….. and so can Labour in 2011.”

Assuming Anderton retires in 2011, this leaves Labour with only the Greens. Labour have an opportunity to have a better relationship with the Maori Party now that the author of “haters and wreckers” and “last cab off the rank” has been exiled overseas.  But to date they seem to be doing their best to push the Maori Party towards National – and that may be a decision they bitterly regret.

Hat Tip: Blaise Drinkwater