John Armstrong: Turia the queen of the castle

By JOHN ARMSTRONG

Nothing was going to upstage Tariana Turia's triumphant re-entry into Parliament yesterday - not even the freshly bleached locks of Labour's David Cunliffe.

In her new guise as parliamentary leader of the Maori Party, Mrs Turia had been allocated a front-bench seat on the cross-benches where other minority party leaders reside alongside junior Government MPs.

To her right were the greying locks of United Future's Peter Dunne; to her left sat the mop atop Mr Cunliffe, whose mane has suddenly taken on a David Beckham-like hue since the House was last in session three weeks ago.

But not even this attention-grabbing indulgence on the part of the New Lynn MP could overshadow Mrs Turia's grand entrance.

This was not going to be just another day back at the office after the two-month hiatus forced on her by the byelection in her Te Tai Hauauru seat. This was the first day the first MP from the new Maori Party would be sitting in Parliament.

The significance of the occasion aside, this was yet another opportunity to promote her fledgling party.

Flanked by three Maori women MPs - Labour's Georgina Beyer, the Greens' Metiria Turei and the independent Donna Awatere Huata - Mrs Turia was out to show MPs dismissive of her byelection victory that her party had well and truly arrived as she entered the chamber to be sworn in as an MP once more.

On cue, she was greeted by a rousing, raucous haka from her supporters packing the public galleries, probably bewildering delegations from the Vietnamese Parliament and British House of Commons sitting nearby.

"Welcome back, Tariana," shouted Hone Harawira, one of the Maori Party's prospective candidates, before Speaker Jonathan Hunt brought the House to order.

Another member of the Harawira family - Hone's sister Hinewhare - had infiltrated the area strictly reserved for journalists in the Press Gallery.

She refused to budge, leaving only after being told repeatedly she was breaching Parliament's rules and the Serjeant-at-Arms would be called to have her ejected.

After that excitement, subsequent questions from Opposition MPs to ministers about ballooning numbers on the sickness benefit and what the Chief Justice did or did not mean by her remarks on the Supreme Court paled in comparison.

Mrs Turia, meanwhile, had left for the Beehive foyer where her supporters reassembled for yet another solidarity session, during which she had a poke at her old party, Labour.

"I've seen some early election advertising telling us 'You're better off with this party or another'," she said, referring to a Labour pamphlet delivered to Maori households during the byelection.

Unbeknown to Mrs Turia, the Prime Minister had uttered words to that very effect on her way to Labour's caucus meeting earlier in the day.

While ducking questions on when she might hold talks with Mrs Turia about how the MP will vote on confidence motions, Helen Clark also stressed that a vote for the Maori Party could end up being a vote for a National Government, a pointed reminder to Mrs Turia that although yesterday may have been her day, she should forget any thoughts of a honeymoon.