NZCPR Newsletter: Tyranny of the Minority

The shock defection of the Labour Cabinet Minister Meka Whaitiri, the MP for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, to the Maori Party caught the Prime Minister and her former colleagues by surprise. They were blind-sided, admitting they had no idea she was thinking of leaving the Party.

Her decision to ditch Labour, without the courtesy of even notifying the Prime Minister, has been widely condemned as disrespectful.

Her time with Labour was not without controversy. In 2018 Prime Minister Ardern sacked her as a Minister following allegations of bullying, but she worked her way back to regain a Ministerial position outside of Cabinet.

However, the newly elected Prime Minister Chris Hipkins overlooked her for promotion into Cabinet during his first Cabinet reshuffle and did so again following Stuart Nash’s resignation – in spite of giving her the Cyclone Recovery portfolio. Perhaps the elevation of a lower-ranked Maori Caucus colleague, Willow-Jean Prime, into Cabinet ahead of her led her to believe her future with Labour was in decline.

Meka Whaitiri first won the Ikaroa-Rawhiti electorate, which stretches from Gisborne on the East Coast down to Upper Hutt, in a by-election in 2013 following the death of Labour Cabinet Minister Parekura Horomia. And while she’s now putting her own interests ahead of the 13,642 voters who elected her to office, she’s nevertheless hoping they will remain loyal to her, and not Labour, on election day.  

At Wednesday’s press conference Meka Whaitiri announced she had informed the Speaker she had resigned from Labour: “This morning, I have officially notified the Speaker that I have resigned from the New Zealand Labour Party and have joined Te Pati Maori effective immediately. And as the Ikaroa-Rawhiti sitting MP, I intend to be seated with Te Pati Maori when we return to Parliament.”

By writing to the Speaker and saying she had resigned from Labour, Meka Whaitiri should have triggered the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act. This ‘waka jumping’ legislation had been introduced in 2018 to prevent MPs from upsetting the proportionality of Parliament by defecting from the parties they were elected to represent and staying on as independents.

However, to date she hasn’t been expelled from Parliament and nor has her electorate been declared vacant. Instead, Speaker Adrian Rurawhe claims the message he received from Meka Whaitiri didn’t activate the party-hopping law and so he’s ruled that under Standing Order 35.5 – which states “Any member who is not a member of a recognised party is treated as an Independent member for parliamentary purposes” – she can stay on in Parliament as an independent.

Not everyone agrees. Otago University Law Professor Andrew Geddis has questioned the decision, saying the intention of the defecting MP was ‘unequivocal’. He believes the matter is of such constitutional significance that the correspondence between the MP and the Speaker should be released to reassure the public that there’s been no skulduggery: “It’s a constitutional question, and I’m not sure it’s enough for the Speaker to say, ‘Trust me, I’m right’.”

So, at the present time, for Parliamentary purposes, Meka Whaitiri appears to be an independent MP representing the Ikaroa-Rawhiti electorate, sitting alongside the Maori Party and voting with the Maori Party, but as far as electoral law is concerned, she remains a member of Labour.

It’s these sorts of shenanigans that bring Parliament into disrepute – as well as making the Labour Party, the Maori Party, and the Speaker look ridiculous.

Labour appears so desperate to avoid upsetting a party they may need to rely on to form the next government, that they have decided not to expel their rogue MP from Parliament. But in doing so they look to be turning a blind eye to the Maori Party’s aggressive strategy of targeting three or four of their Maori seats as the next step towards winning all seven.

If the Maori Party succeeds, they are likely to create an overhang of seats in Parliament, making it much harder for opposition parties to form a government.

Furthermore, their Kingmaker role will enable the Maori Party to introduce the most radically divisive policies ever seen in our Parliament, despite having little public support. 

Should that be the election outcome, New Zealand’s slide towards apartheid and social chaos will accelerate faster than ever.

Those who are not concerned about the Maori Party becoming Kingmaker, should be. This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator Frank Newman, a former local body councillor, reminds us how unstable tribal rule becomes once the different factions within Maoridom start competing for the spoils of governance:

“Chief of War is an action drama set in 18th-century Hawaii. The storyline is about four warring tribes uniting against a much more powerful colonial invader. It has been billed as ‘the biggest Indigenous series ever made’. There is no question it is a big deal financially, with a production budget of US$340 million for the nine episodes. 

“The lead actor is Hollywood superstar Jason Momoa, best known for his roles as the titular character in Aquaman and Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones. Big name kiwi actors include Temuera Morrison and Cliff Curtis. The movie is of relevance to New Zealand because parts are to be filmed on location here. Filming started last October in the Bay of Islands which welcomed the cast and entourage with great celebration and cultural fanfare at a powhiri. Filming is also scheduled to take place in Auckland and was to take place at Kauri Mountain, which is on the east coast near Whangarei, where the scenery is spectacular.”

Frank explains that consents were obtained, sets constructed, some 300 ‘extras’ from the Maori and Pasifika communities were hired, and filming started – until, it all came to an abrupt halt, with sets dismantled, extras let go, and the film crew disappearing because of the warring tribes of Northland.

But he also highlights a much wider concern: “There is also now clearly emerging inter-generational conflict within Maori between more moderate iwi elders intent on working within the system and a younger generation of activists intent on destroying the system. Perhaps what we are seeing is the new generation that is the product of radicalised education who will not be satisfied with anything less than sovereignty over all Aotearoa and all its inhabitants. The Maori Party is the flag bearer of that cause.”

The former US President Barak Obama warned about the dangers posed by tribal politics in 2006: “Ethnic-based tribal politics has to stop. It is rooted in the bankrupt idea that the goal of politics or business is to funnel as much of the pie as possible to one’s family, tribe, or circle with little regard for the public good. It stifles innovation and fractures the fabric of the society. Instead of opening businesses and engaging in commerce, people come to rely on patronage and payback as a means of advancing. Instead of unifying the country to move forward on solving problems, it divides neighbour from neighbour.”

This focus on radical self-interest rather than the public good was on clear display at Meka Whaitiri’s press conference last Wednesday, when the Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi stated: “What Meka has done is liberated Ikaroa-Rāwhiti from being a seat that’s been locked to Labour since the 1940s. This is an opportunity to bring this seat back to te iwi Maori, to tangata whenua, to be the true voice of our people and not to be hamstrung by pakeha parties and pakeha agendas.”

If Labour forms a government with the Greens and the Maori Party after the election, our future will be in the hands of a party advocating Maori supremacy that is committed to ensuring Maori are not ‘hamstrung’ by pakeha.

Under such a regime, the country would indeed be hamstrung – but by the ‘tyranny of the minority’.

Since Maori supremacy now appears to be the goal of Meka Whaitiri, the question that needs to be asked is whether this was also the objective of her former Labour Party colleagues – including Cabinet Ministers Nanaia Mahuta, Willie Jackson, Kelvin Davis, Kiri Allan, Adrian Rurawhe, Peeni Henare, Rino Tirikatene, Willow-Jean Prime and the other MPs making up the 15-strong Maori Caucus – when they were forcing He Puapua onto the country?

Since Prime Minister Hipkins hasn’t ruled out any He Puapua policies, is Maori rule his objective as well? It certainly seems so.

And while the PM might think that giving the appearance of pulling on the handbrake over co-governance ahead of the election is enough to mollify voters, isn’t it the truth that even more radical separatist measures are waiting in the wings if Labour forms a government with Greens and the Maori Party?

Given the current strength of those three parties in the polls, there is now a grave risk that if they win the election, the iwi leaders of multi-million-dollar private business development corporations will become an elite ruling class, undermining democracy and relegating all other New Zealanders to second class status.

In that situation, will the majority voice even matter – or will we effectively be treated like overstayers in our own country?

The groundwork for tribal rule that has already been put in place is far more pervasive than most people realise. The tentacles of separatism that now reach across all spheres of the State Sector, have also invaded private enterprise. After another three years of consolidation under a Labour-led Government, if the radical new initiatives being planned right now by the Maori Party – such as transferring freshwater ownership to Maori and bringing in a new constitution based on the Treaty of Waitangi – are embedded in our legislative framework, the iwi takeover will be complete and totalitarian tribal rule will be virtually impossible to reverse. 

What’s almost unfathomable about the plight now facing New Zealand is that we were warned about the danger in 1986, when the Royal Commission on the Electoral System predicted democracy would be fatally undermined if MMP was adopted without the Maori seats being abolished. They expected that under MMP, Maori would be adequately represented through general and list seats, making any special race-based provisions unnecessary. And they cautioned that if the Maori seats were retained, the democratic representation of the country would be seriously distorted, creating widespread race-based discrimination. 

That’s exactly what has now happened. Following the 2020 election, as a result of winning six Maori seats, Maori MPs were grossly over-represented in the new Labour Government, making up 23 percent of the 65-strong Parliamentary team, and 25 percent of Cabinet. That gave a radical Maori voice a disproportionate influence. 

If those Maori seats were abolished, Labour would have ended up with at least 9 Maori MPs or 14 percent, which is representative of the 13 percent of voters who identify as Maori. 

Furthermore, the ultra-radical Maori Party, that is supported by only a fraction of New Zealanders, would not have made it into Parliament.

Facing an election where a Maori Party Kingmaker could well deliver apartheid rule, surely it’s time to protect our democracy and future as a free and equal society – while we still can.

Firstly, we should follow the recommendation of the Royal Commission and abolish the Maori seats.

And secondly, given the disastrous range of separatist measures that have now been imposed on our country – including Three Waters and a health system that prioritises Maori over others in greater need – we should emulate what Sweden, Holland, Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, and other countries have done and remove all references to “race” from our Statute books.

Turning New Zealand back into a society where are all Kiwis are equal under the law, is the only way to build a strong and united future. Otherwise, we risk descending into the toxic race-based abyss currently being planned by the Maori Party and their allies.

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Dr Muriel Newman established the New Zealand Centre for Political Research as a public policy think tank in 2005 after nine years as a Member of Parliament. The NZCPR website is HERE. We also run this Breaking Views Blog and our NZCPR Facebook Group HERE.