Pita Sharples has complicated things by not giving up his ministerial responsibilities. Photo / Mark Mitchel
Pita Sharples has complicated things by not giving up his ministerial responsibilities. Photo / Mark Mitchel
Opinion by
Renewal, regeneration, rebirth. No matter what you call it, no political party can escape it.
Even the cult of personality otherwise known as New Zealand First will one day have to confront the exit of its leader either through retirement or - given his innate reluctance to give up thegood fight - eventual departure from this mortal coil. The seeming absence of any succession plan is likely to guarantee only one outcome in the weeks and months that follow Winston Peters' stepping down.
NZ First will disintegrate. That was the fate of the New Zealand Party back in the 1980s after some members rejected Sir Robert Jones' decision to disband the party and instead attempted to keep it going as a rival to National.
In both cases, the two leaders were bigger than the parties they founded. Pita Sharples was at pains to stress during his press conference yesterday announcing his resignation as Maori Party co-leader that no one individual is bigger than the party.
The problem is Sharples and Tariana Turia, who is sending mixed signals as to when she too will resign as co-leader prior to likewise quitting Parliament, have come to personify the party. Without them, the Maori Party is going to have its work cut out holding on to two of its three seats.
The danger is that Sharples' going produces a vacuum which leaves his highly capable, but yet-to-be-confirmed successor, Te Ururoa Flavell, struggling to fill it.
Sharples has complicated things by not giving up his ministerial responsibilities to Flavell until some months before the election - and then only some portfolios.
Not being a minister will theoretically make it easier for Flavell to indulge in some timely distancing of the Maori Party from National. That will be essential during the election campaign. But by the time that rolls around Flavell will be a minister.
Confused? Probably not as much as the Maori Party seems to be.
