"That was the when I resigned from the Maori Party, resigned from Parliament, and with the support of the people of the North and tautoko from around the country, won the seat back as the leader of the newly-minted Mana Movement, and held it again in the election of 2011.
"Mana defined its position when we announced that our constituency would be those we call te pani me te rawakore, the poor and the dispossessed, and our last three years have been a challenging and vigorous time where we have staked out our place in the political world - a commitment to ending poverty for all, and particularly those most vulnerable in our society, our kids; a commitment to putting an end to the grinding homelessness affecting tens of thousands of New Zealand families; a commitment to putting the employment of people ahead of the sacrifice of jobs in the endless pursuit of wealth for the few; and a commitment to a future where the Treaty of Waitangi is honoured as the basis for justice and good governance in Aotearoa.
"Being so highly principled brings with it enormous risk, not least the fact that kids can't vote and poor people don't, but I am proud of what we have achieved in our short time in Parliament."
Now he challenged the new Parliament to pass his 'Feed the Kids' Bill, to address the country's "full-blown" housing crisis, to restructure the economy so it would meet the needs of people rather than the profits of parasites, to invest in community work programmes, to give life back to communities devastated by asset sales, and to create employment for all its citizens rather than wasting billions of dollars every year on needless and mindless welfare dependency.
And while Mana might be down, it wasn't out.
"We are already organising to feed the kids, and working with other groups to get in behind our campaign," Mr Harawira said.
"We will be calling on iwi up and down the country to open their marae to house the homeless. We will be organising internet camps for senior students and Maori communities so that our young people can fly the highways of the world.
"We are talking with work trusts about community employment programmes that can become a model for other communities to adopt. We will create community hubs where the Mana message of hope and action can become the core of the communities we serve.
"We will monitor the government's performance on steps they are taking to create real jobs with decent wages and safe working conditions, to house the homeless and to eliminate child poverty, and we will be challenging the opposition to keep the pressure on to achieve these goals. And we will march against the hated GCSB; we will mount a legal challenge against the mass surveillance that this government is conducting illegally against the people of New Zealand; we will continue to oppose the TPPA that threatens the sovereignty of our very nation; and we will campaign for the return of our assets.
"Believe me when I say that Mana will not be going gently into the night."
