Goff is pissed off with Maori Party
Labour Leader Phil Goff has said that the Maori Party is going against the wishes of Maori voters by going with Labour and is pissed off that the Maori Party has sided with National. I voted for the Maori Party for the very decision that it is making this weekend - to go with National and I am glad that it has. I predicted it would go with National, and also predicted the arrangement - ie a couple of ministers outside of cabinet but not a formal coalition.
But Goff is as silly to say that the Maori Party is going against the wishes of Maori voters as it is to say that Labour went against the wishes of non-Maori voters by governing in 2005 - most of whom did not vote Labour. The Maori Party is a political party. Sure some may have voted for Maori Party candidates and voted Labour, but it is also silly comparing the Maori Party decision with NZ First's decision to go with National in 1996 - as Goff also does - as the Maori Party is not going into coalition with anyone, and it was the voters of NZ First that wanted to go with Labour. Maori Party voters, on the whole, are voting for the best way forward for Maori. They are not voting en masse for Maori to go with Labour - as if Maori Party voters in the Maori electorate really wanted to go with Labour they would have voted Labour and split their vote.
Perhaps Goff would have a point if his party bothered to get his supporters in the Maori electorate to get out and vote.
Labels: Maori Party, National
1 Comments:
Goff may well be right. As detailed on other blogs, many of National's policies won't be good for Maori no matter how you spin them. The labour law changes alone will make all workers - especially the young - more vulnerable to dodgy employers. With unemployment expected to rise to 5.7% in the near future, that will increase the pressure on workers to put up with dodgy employers.
Having said that, National's main focus this term is getting rid of MMP, so they won't out to scare anyone until they have locked in a voting system that will them do as they please with 40% of the vote, instead of the 50%+ that MMP requires.
That the Maori Party will support them in that is the evil part.....taking away the votes of their own supporters.
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