David Farrar: A former TPM co-leader on TPM

Te Ururoa Flavell writes:

1. Māori Party in court with its MPs

2. Two former Māori Party candidate options have gone to Greens. There may be others.

Mike Butler: Race appointees ammo for Winston

The Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill, that legislates for six race-based appointees on the Taranaki Regional Council, provided new ammunition for New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters this week.

This is the second time Treaty Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson has written into law the requirement for tribal appointees on a local body, with the first being the regional planning committee on the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council set up in 2012.

Mike Butler: Probing Whanau Ora trough

Why did it take Labour MPs Nanaia Mahuta and Kelvin Davis so long to question the Whanau Ora one-stop welfare scheme? Both MPs this week said it was not good enough that, six years after its launch, there has been no detailed public progress report.(1)

However, John Tamihere , the chief executive of Whanau Ora commissioning agency Te Pou Matakana, which hands out the money, disagrees.

Mike Butler: Another no to Maori ward

Fourteen polls one message was the graphic response of advertising specialist John Ansell upon Friday’s news that 83 percent voted against establishing a Maori ward in New Plymouth.

Ansell created a graphic with that title to show that whenever a contentious Maori issue is put to a vote, opposition ranged from 52 percent against (Maori wards in Wairoa which has a Maori population of 46 percent) to 95 percent against (discharge from conviction for the Maori king’s son).

Mike Butler: Playing young Maori crims for votes

The Maori Party appears to have has run out of ideas, with co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell recycling his “racist justice system” allegation by calling for a review to find out why young Maori become increasingly over represented in youth crime statistics.

Flavell raised the issue about a year ago and again in April this year in the presence of a United Nations delegation.

Latest Ministry of Justice figures show the number of children and young people charged in Youth Court is the lowest in 20 years, although the proportion of young Maori compared with non-Maori is rising.

Mike Butler: Moment of truth for Harawira

Former MP Hone Harawira blinking while refusing to admit defeat was probably the standout moment in election coverage last night. Harawira’s performance was pivotal for Kim Dotcom, the "billionaire" German internet entrepreneur facing extradition to face copyright infringement charges.

Dotcom launched the Internet Party in March of this year, and entered an agreement with Harawira's Mana Party under which the parties could demerge six weeks after polling day. Dotcom donated $3-million to the Internet Party, and shortly after former Alliance Party leader Laila Harré was announced leader.

Mike Butler: Blaming racism for incarceration

Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell is still alleging police, courts, and Corrections racism for the high rate of incarceration of Maori and has got a visiting United Nations delegation to go along with his story. Flavell raised the issue about a year ago when told parliament that “for the 3495 theft apprehensions recorded as Caucasian there were 588 prosecutions; and for Maori, for the 5660 apprehensions recorded, 1173 resulted in prosecution—in other words, prosecution rates of 16.8 percent versus 20.7 percent”.

Flavell went on to claim that “if a Maori teen and a pakeha teen are apprehended for the same crime, the young Maori is more likely to be prosecuted while the Pakeha youth is more likely to get off. Does this not raise questions of fairness and of discrimination in those people who would be sceptical of institutional racism?”

Mike Butler: MPs wise to reject oaths bill

The rejection of Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell’s Oaths and Declarations (Upholding the Treaty of Waitangi) Amendment Bill may indicate that the claimed political unanimity on treaty matters is not so united. A closer look at what Flavell was trying to achieve shows that his oaths bill was part of a wider Maori Party campaign to weave a “cash cow for Maori’ version of the treaty into law and into the day-to-day activities of as many people as possible.

The purpose of Flavell's bill was "to ensure that a person taking any oath set out in statute may, in addition to the words of the oath, elect to state that they will uphold the Treaty of Waitangi", which would recognises "that the Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand’s founding document and the Government is committed to fulfilling its obligations as a treaty partner". (1)