Independent Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira is defending forcing a byelection, even though his path to re-election seems clear, with the Maori Party not standing against him and Labour still deciding whether to do so.
Mr Harawira officially launched his new Mana Party in Auckland on Saturday and announced he
would resign from Parliament officially by writing to the Speaker today, thus setting off a byelection likely to cost $500,000.
Labour List MP Kelvin Davis said the byelection would be a huge cost that wouldn't benefit anybody in the region. The party would decide this week whether he would stand against Mr Harawira.
Mr Harawira told a gathering of about 300 people at Te Mahurehure Marae, Pt Chevalier, that as he was accountable to the people of his electorate they should be able to have their say on his new party.
He said every MP deserved the right to get a mandate from the people. Mr Harawira said the Maori Party president assured him it would not stand a candidate against him this year, which will make his path to re-election virtually assured.
Mr Harawira told unionists last week that Mana would be "anti-neoliberal, against monopoly capitalism, and against privatisation of the people's assets".
The strategy on taxes would be targeted at wealth such as capital gains taxes, death duties and asset taxes, something he called a "Hone Heke Tax".
Mr Harawira said on Saturday the Mana Party's basic aims were simple - to guarantee affordable food and shelter to all New Zealanders.
That meant rebuilding unions, introducing a Hone Heke Tax of 1 per cent on every dollar spent and scrapping other taxes; and ending the 90-day probationary period for new employees.
"I want to recall the $36 million being wasted on a bloody yacht race in San Francisco and spend it instead on heating in the poorer suburbs of Christchurch," he said.
Harawira slams Brash move, p5
