David Farrar: The TPM overhang strategy could result in permament left wing government

Te Pati Maori are trying to use the Māori seats to engineer overhang seats, to try and lock the centre right out of power – even if they win more votes. But recent law changes means the potential impact of this strategy could be huge.

At present there are seven Māori seats. If TPM won all seven, and got fewer than 0.4% PV that would be a seven seat overhang. It means that you would need 64 seats to form a Government instead of 61.

David Farrar: TPM’s abuse machine

Radio NZ reports:

A West Auckland lawn mower says he’s received death threats after a Facebook post from Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere accused him of vandalising election hoardings.

Emerald Lawns operator Steve Howley told RNZ he didn’t go to work on Thursday because he was fearful of being attacked.

David Farrar: Meet TPM’s “hero”

Te Pati Maori co-leader Rawiri Waititi shared a video of Ibrahim Traoré on Instagram and declared him his “hero”.

Traoré is the leader of Burkina Faso. Here’s his record:

David Farrar: Prebble on Labour and TPM

Richard Prebble writes:

Claims standards of parliamentary behaviour have fallen are nonsense. Except for Te Pāti Māori, this is a well-behaved House.

The Speaker’s referral of the floor protest to the Privileges Committee was not discretionary. It was required by Standing Orders.

David Farrar: Labour goes all in with Te Pāti Māori

The Labour Party can’t form a potential Government without TPM, so they appear to have decided to go all in on their behalf. Evidence:

David Farrar: Norm breaking should be condemned in NZ, not just the US

One of the major criticisms (which I share) is that Donald Trump has broken many of the norms of politics in the US, and he undermines institutional legacy.

In New Zealand, Te Pati Māori do the same. But their norm breaking is not called out to even a fraction of the scale Trump’s is.

Matua Kahurangi blogs: