Point of Order: Messy? Not according to Meka Whaitiri....

.....but she said so before her Maori Party colleagues were ejected from Parliament

While waiting for Hansard’s official record of Meka Whaitiri’s personal statement to Parliament this afternoon, Point of Order found a press statement from New Zealand First.

It was teasingly headed Whaitiri fiasco a multi-party deception.

More teasingly, Winston Peters’ name was absent from the text which kicked off:

Point of Order: There’s signage that requires no translation.....

....and there’s $ignage that too often is missing from govt press statements

Language is the focus of two of the three fresh press statements posted on the Government’s official website since Point of Order reported yesterday on our monitoring of Beehive activities.

One statement deals with the revival of the language of the people of Rotuma, the other deals with New Zealand Sign Language Week.

The other statement is to announce a new housing initiative which taps into the Affordable Housing Fund.

Peter Wilson: Week In Politics - Meka Whaitiri ~ why did she do it?

Meka Whaitiri announced her defection to Te Pati Māori on Wednesday and at the end of the week it still wasn't clear why she had done it.

"Whaitiri ... offered little explanation of her decision to quit Labour, referring instead to a commitment to Maori political activism," RNZ reported.

"Speaking to reporters afterwards she offered hardly more insight to her decision."

The report quoted Whaitiri: "It's my calling. It's who I am as a Māori, proudly so ... for me it's coming home."

Point of Order: Meka Whaitiri’s waka-jumping prowess....

....she quits Labour, joins the Maori Party and will sit in Parliament as an Independent

“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 Ikaroa Rāwhiti sitting MP I intend to be seated with Te Pati Maori when we return to Parliament”

That declaration from Meka Whaitiri can be clearly heard in an audio recording included in a Stuff report.

At least, we think it can be clearly heard.

Tim Watkin: R.E.S.P.E.C.T. - Find out what it means to Me...Ka

It’s one of those lines oft-trotted out by parents, managers and trainers, but is no less true for its homespun nature. The line goes: “It’s not just what you do, but how you do it”.

What Meka Whaitiri did yesterday morning is significant enough. A sitting minister (outside of cabinet) leaving a party less than six months out from an election is a shocking move. The timing and the scale of the decision – let alone the political message it sends voters – is inherently dramatic.

Mike Hosking: The Meka Whaitiri mess is a disgrace

What a sordid, sloppy mess, eh?

Meka Whaitiri is off, we still don’t know why and, somehow, she escapes the party hopping laws, so gets to stay on as an MP.

Does that, or does that not, sum up the malaise and general mess with which this country is currently run?

Point of Order: While Govt pours millions into silt and debris removal in her patch, Meka Whaitiri removes herself as Labour MP to join Maori Party

Webmasters have been busy removing the name of Mega Whaitiri from the Beehive and Labour Party websites, after she announced she was crossing the House to become a member of the Maori Party.

But immediately she is sitting as an independent MP.

Whoever looks after the Maori Party website has not been quite so busy. No news has been posted there since November 1, when a statement was posted under the heading Expressions of Interest for Candidates for the 2023 General Election.

Bob Edlin: Mystery still shrouds ‘incident’ that sparked latest ministerial sacking

Boom!  There  goes another  minister…

PM  Jacinda  Ardern  wasted little time  in firing  Meka  Whaitiri  as  Minister  of Customs after   receiving a  report  into  an  “incident”  in Gisborne  on  August  27   involving Whaitiri and one of her staff.

Ardern said she no longer had confidence Meka Whaitiri as a minister.

“That is why I have taken the action I have.  I’ve made the decision solely on this incident. I’m confident in the decision I have made.”

No  mucking about this time, as there was  over the  Curran  affair.  Yet there  are  still elements of  mystery  over precisely  what  happened  in that  Gisborne  “incident”.

Mike Butler: Joblessness-crime link weak

Recorded crime on the East Coast increased over the past year, unlike everywhere else in New Zealand, prompting the area’s politicians to offer their solutions. But what are the actual causes of crime? The cause of crime is a major research area in criminology, with a large number of correlates proposed -- bearing in mind that correlation does not imply causation. But first, what did the politicians say?

Labour MP Meka Whaitiri (Ikaroa-Eawhiti) said in this week's edition of The Hastings Mail that the answer is employment. Labour’s Tukituki candidate Anna Lorck cited new jobs and adequate pay. Labour’s Napier hopeful Stuart Nash cited poverty and unemployment. National MP Craig Foss (Tukituki) said “crime problems were ingrained in some families who saw belonging to criminal gangs and violence as nothing out of the ordinary”.

Mike Butler: No-vote and Maori seats relevance

Preliminary results of the Ikaroa-Rawhiti by-election are unsurprising with Labour candidate Meka Whaitiri taking nearly double the votes of the runner-up in a poll on a sunny day marked by low voter turnout. The big Maori no-vote could be seen as a message that the sun is setting on separate Maori seats.