Here's what Helen Clark told the Maori Women's Welfare League 56th Conference on Friday;
You have my word : under Labour, the Maori electorates will stay as long as Maori want them to stay.
Every five years, the Maori electoral option gives Maori that choice.
It would be wrong, wrong, wrong for a Pakeha majority to take that choice away.
Yet under National Party policy, there would only be one more election with Maori seats after this one.
In electoral terms, that’s gone by lunchtime.
"You have my word". Intimate and compelling. Clark now has a powerful tool to pull the Maori party vote (and the Maori Party support.)
A tool possibly powerful enough to win another term.
What will Turia do? Turn her back on the party that stole their property rights to support a party that will steal their electoral power-base?
It's going to be fascinating.
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6 comments:
What will Turia do?
Turia is working very hard to build up the list vote. Once the Maori party is over 6% on the list, then the Maori seats are unnecessary,
but really, the question isn't what will Turia do: it is what will John Key do
well on RadioSocialism, Browlee was equally clear: National's position on the Maori seats is open for negotiation. And he expects to negotiate that with the Maori party.
What will Turia do?
She should probably tell Helen Clark to read National's policy and understand it before spouting off. There will be Maori seats at the 2014 election under Nationals policy. Thats two elections after this one, not one.
A bit emotive arguing that it's "wrong for a Pakeha majority to take that choice away."
Why shouldn't 100% of NZers have the right to decide how their democracy chooses its Government? At present Maori benefit from serious distortions working in favour of a small minority, e.g.:
- 7 dedicated Maori seats, each with a roll smaller than the general electorate average.
- choice of a Maori or general electorate roll by those who elect to regard themselves as Maori.
- full Maori Party participation in voting in general electorates.
That situation is not democratic or even-handed, and cannot be defended with hand on heart.
I am not arguing here about who is right and who is wrong. Only a few of us, in the overall scheme of things, care enough to really try to understand policy. The bulk of the electorate picks up snippets here and there and if Helen starts to play this one, she can milk it with Maoridom regardless of the intellectual arguments brought to the table.
The 'pakeha majority' irritated me, too, Nevada.
As does any rhetoric (usually Treaty-related) concerning "bi-cultural" or similar, ignoring as it does the legions of Kiwis with different DNA and/or born elsewhere.
"What will Turia do? Turn her back on the party that stole their property rights to support a party that will steal their electoral power-base?"
as in customary indigenous title to sea land
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