Now that he’s said he’ll do it, he probably can’t get out of it. But he should never havesaid it.
Because this hīkoi won’t help Labour get to Government. This hīkoi is unlikely to impress Middle NZ voters.
It’s already irritated Auckland’s North Shore commuters by (probably deliberately) crossing the jammed Harbour Bridge during rush-hour morning traffic on a weekday when workers were trying to get into the office and parents were trying to get their kids to NCEA exams on time.
Middle NZ won’t love the sight of gang members on the hīkoi openly parading patches. These are patches that are so unpopular they’ll be outlawed in public in four days.
Now, just in case you were labouring under the impression that this hīkoi is some sort of organic uprising of Māori all simultaneously wanting to protest the Treaty Principles Bill, let’s set the record straight.
This is the opposite of organic. It’s a Māori Party protest. The lead organiser, Eru Kapa-Kingi, is a current or former staffer of the Māori Party, he stood for the party, his mum is an MP for the party (Mariameno Kapa-Kingi) and the party’s bus is on the hīkoi.
It’s weird that the Labour leader wants to turn up at and endorse another party’s protest event.
Just like it’s weird that senior Labour MP Willie Jackson gave the Māori Party a shout-out in his Treaty Principles Bill speech. And just like it’s weird that Labour’s Peeni Henare joined their controversial haka directed at David Seymour at the Bill’s first reading.
It’s weird because Te Pāti Māori are not Labour’s friends. They are one of Labour’s biggest problems.
Hīkoi lead organiser Eru Kapa-Kingi, whose mother is a Te Pāti Māori MP.
Middle New Zealand is repelled by how radical these guys are.
So much so that the Māori Party is one of Labour’s biggest obstacles to any realistic chance of forming a government at the next election. A government that contains Te Pāti Māori is one the average swing voter will likely struggle to vote for.
Labour is clearly – and rightly – worried that Te Pāti Māori is stealing Māori voters with its vocal opposition to Seymour’s Bill, but Labour should be wary of chasing TPM down the radical path. It can’t out-Māori the Māori Party. And if it tries, it might only find itself losing the Middle NZ vote it will need to form a government.
It’s not roses on the other side of the political spectrum, though. National seems to have realised how dumb an idea it was to allow this Bill to go to Parliament if it only planned to kill it.
The Nats sent out an email to supporters a couple of hours after the Bill passed its first reading to “explain” for the first time why they’re killing it. Turns out “some people” have been asking why National is nuking the thing. The answer is this Bill’s solution is too “blunt and simplistic” to fix the “complex” challenges of the Treaty.
The complex challenges? Several decades of courts making up Treaty principles which hardly anyone can list or explain and which are used to justify bizarre decisions like taking Māori foster kids out of loving homes because their foster parents are white. The simplistic solution? Replace those principles with only three to be found in one piece of law.
It’s said that explaining is losing. And that National Party email is what losing looks like. Because no one loves a simple solution more than a conservative, National Party voter. Don’t like the gangs? Ban the patches. Kids aren’t passing maths exams? An hour of maths a day. Too much crime? Increase jail time.
So good luck to National trying to convince its voters why – when there is a simple solution available and ready to go – that simple solution should not be used.
Both major parties probably hate the Treaty Principles Bill right now. Both can likely already see how it’s hurting them.
But both only have themselves to blame because they’re both reading the room badly.
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