26/10/2014
Kia Ora.
This flowing off my fingers, just the
very way I think it.
I am typing late at night, having just been woken from a
dream. In the dream, I was having a poignant conversation.
New Zealand’s General Election happened just over a month
ago. The New Government has been sworn in, as has the 51st
Parliament, which is now sitting.
We have something unprecedented in New Zealand history; that
is that 30% of the New Zealand Legislature (people who make our laws) are Now,
all MAORI.
We can be grateful that that Legislature has something
Unique. What is unique is that we have seats that are there for MAORI. There are 7 MAORI Seats. All these 7 MAORI
Seats are there, so that the people sitting in them work for MAORI.
Unfortunately, in that Legislature of 121 MPs, we have
(since our inception 10 years ago) the lowest number of MAORI PARTY MPs. We only have 2.
THE RUB
If we are real with ourselves, the reason why we have the
lowest number, all comes down how we told people our message. Who do we work
for? Do THEY know what we do? Do THEY know who we are?
I now wish to make a simplistic statement about political
perception and messaging in New Zealand.
See tables below
I will name all the Parties represented in the Parliament
(as well as others that ran in the General Election, but who didn’t make it
in).
|
PARTY
|
WHO
THEY WORK FOR???
|
|
National
|
Business people, Corporations
|
|
Labour
|
Workers
|
|
Greens
|
Environmentalists
|
|
NZ First
|
Elderly people
|
|
United
Future
|
Fisherman, “Middle New Zealand”
|
|
ACT
|
Taxpayers, Consumers
|
|
PARTY
|
WHO
THEY WORK FOR???
|
|
Conservative
Party
|
Conservative people
|
|
Internet
Party
|
Internet Users
|
|
ALCP
|
Cannabis Users
|
|
MANA
Movement
|
Poor People
|
We see in
the 2 tables above, that messaging tells us who we think political Parties work
for, and what we associate them and their names with.
Again, I come back to 2 questions;
Who does the Maori Party work for? Do “they” know we work for
them?
Above, on the first page, you’ll see MAORI in bold 5 times. But you’ll notice if you re-read those
sentences, that I don’t explicitly say the MAORI
PARTY works just for MAORI.
That’s because I fundamentally don’t believe that. It is an untrue statement to say that the MAORI PARTY works only for MAORI.
It is more accurate and more true to say that those in the MAORI SEATS work for MAORI.
The 26 MPs of MAORI descent
can also work for MAORI.
Look carefully at the sentences just above. Maori is written
7 times, Maori Party is written twice.
We have 2 Maori Party MPs. We have 7 Maori seats.
Again, the 2 questions;
Who does the Maori
Party work for? Do “they” know we work for them?
You may say, “Hang on, 6 of the 7 Maori Seats are with
Labour, we only have 1 out of 7”.
Yes, that’s obviously true. What may not be obvious though,
is that, parties aside, every one of
the 7 Maori people in the 7 Maori seats all have whakapapa Maori, have Maori
families and in each in their unique ways are committed to Kaupapa Maori. And
whether we like it or not, Maori voters voted for these 7 Maori people to
represent them in the 51st Parliament.
What is critical is that the way all votes fell in the 2014
New Zealand General Election, meant that we have 30% of our Parliament made up
of Maori.
Crucially for the Maori Party, for the first time, we have
victory not just with voters in the Maori seats. Proportionately, a percentage
of voters on the ‘General Roll’ have helped to gift us List MP.
This to me, shows that a percentage (though very small) of
New Zealand voters overall, know who we work for and thus gave us that
confidence.
The Maori Party does
NOT work for Maori, The Maori Party works for WHANAU.WHANAU are at the heart of our
policies. WHANAU are at the heart of
who we are. WHANAU are our focus. We
are WHANAU. We are a WHANAU. WHANAU are our yardstick, WHANAU
are our gauge. WHANAU tell us
where to go, WHANAU tell us what to
do.
That is who I believe, the Maori Party works for. I believe
the Maori Party works for Whanau.
I am sure you believe that too. We need to tell WHANAU that we work for them. WHANAU need to know that we work for them. If all WHANAU knew who we worked for, and voted accordingly, then the MAORI PARTY would not just be the Largest Party in the NZ Parliament, we’d be the only Party in NZ Parliament. That is because, everyone has a WHANAU. If from now on, we work with this in mind, we will always do better.
I am sure you believe that too. We need to tell WHANAU that we work for them. WHANAU need to know that we work for them. If all WHANAU knew who we worked for, and voted accordingly, then the MAORI PARTY would not just be the Largest Party in the NZ Parliament, we’d be the only Party in NZ Parliament. That is because, everyone has a WHANAU. If from now on, we work with this in mind, we will always do better.
Kia Ora.
