Naming of new Labour list MP upholds historic Rātana political tradition

Incoming Labour List MP Soraya Peke-Mason. Photo / Moana Ellis

New Labour List MP Soraya Peke-Mason will be upholding an historic political tradition set in place by the founder of the Rātana faith, Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana.

Rātana resident Soraya Peke-Mason will become a List MP for Labour following Minister Kris Faafoi's resignation on Monday and Speaker Trevor Mallard's nomination to a European diplomatic posting.

In 1928, TW Rātana declared he was entering politics with the aim of Rātana Church followers winning all four Māori seats. In 1932, Eruera Tirikātene became the first Rātana MP.

Four years later, Rātana and Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage sealed an alliance between the Rātana Church and the Labour Party, and in 1943 the Rātana-Labour alliance took all four seats. Labour held the seats for the next 50 years.

Peke-Mason said the announcement on Monday was not a shock as her ranking in the Labour List had put her "on standby" since the 2020 election, but she was awaiting more detail on her new role.

"To some degree, yes, it's going to be new, although I'm not new to the Beehive and meeting with Ministers over the years. But certainly being in the Lion's Den will be new.

"It is about coming in two-thirds of the way through a term. It's a bit of a wait-and-see, in my view. I'll go through the entrance process one step at a time, and once I've settled in, then I'll find out what the workload looks like, what it will be, who it will be with and all the details."

Peke-Mason said the Party Whip had already made contact and it was likely she would go to Wellington in August or September.

The two months would give her time to "exit appropriately" from her work for Ngāti Rangi and as a member of the District Health Board and its iwi partnership group, Hauora-ā-Iwi.

In major health system reforms, the country's 20 district health boards will be abolished in two weeks in favour of a single national health entity, Health New Zealand, and the Māori Health Authority.

"Everything is formally in place on July 1. There's some fundamental and hard-core mahi that's gone on in that space with ngā iwi through Hauora-ā-Iwi," Peke-Mason said.

"We've got a fantastic Localities prototype in place, which has received some very positive feedback from the [government's] transition unit.

"But there's still a little bit more work to do leading up to that, so I'm feeling very blessed to have until September to tidy up the mahi I have in front of me," she said.

Peke-Mason was Rangitīkei District Council's first wahine Māori councillor, serving for 12 years. In 2019 she stood unsuccessfully for a seat on Horizons, the Whanganui-Manawatū regional council. Before Monday's announcement, Peke-Mason had been considering standing for one of Horizons Regional Council's two new Māori ward seats.

She said Ngāti Rangi had already indicated it would take her to Parliament to be sworn in, and she would extend the invitation to whānau, hapū and marae.

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