By VANESSA BIDOIS Maori issues reporter
Labour is under attack from its coalition partner over the imminent appointment of first-term MP Parekura Horomia as the Minister of Maori Affairs.
Alliance MP Willie Jackson yesterday claimed that his party's deputy leader, Sandra Lee, was considered the top candidate for the job by all the Maori MPs as well as many Maori around the country.
"It's just so disappointing that Labour ignores the person with the best credentials on the basis that that person is in the wrong party," Mr Jackson said.
Sandra Lee could not be reached for comment but Labour's Te Tai Tonga MP, Mahara Okeroa, said she already held two major portfolios in the cabinet - conservation and local government - as well as being an Associate Minister of Maori Affairs.
"There's no denying that Sandra is the senior Maori politician in the House at this stage ... but she's already got a huge workload," Mr Okeroa said.
According to Hauraki MP John Tamihere, who withdrew from the race for the cabinet job on Monday, Mr Horomia is a certainty to take the post when Prime Minister Helen Clark makes her nomination to her caucus next Tuesday.
Mr Horomia was appointed acting minister after she sacked Dover Samuels over allegations of sexual impropriety.
The chairman of Labour's Maori policy council, Barney Manaia, said he believed that most of the Maori caucus supported Mr Horomia.
He was the "best pick of the bunch," Mr Manaia said.
"He's a new boy on the block but his 20 years in bureaucracy means that you've got to learnto work with a team."
However, the chief executive of the National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, said there would be some concern about Mr Horomia's bureaucratic background.
"Now is the time for some outspokenness, to put actions to words and for someone to take some risks ... and that has not been the culture of the public service," Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said.
Maori issues commentator Ross Himona said Mr Horomia was "politically acceptable" compared to Mr Tamihere, Associate Maori Affairs Minister Tariana Turia and Sandra Lee.
Mr Himona said that while Mr Horomia's weight problem meant he was not a good role model, that might not be a disadvantage if he made a good example of himself and shed some bulk. "He knows the bureaucracy, he knows how to work it [and] he does build relationships."
Lee best for job, MP insists
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