Mahuta’s Personal Attack Shows Labour’s Desperation

Maaori party president Tukoroirangi Morgan has dismissed Nanaia Mahuta’s call for him to disclose his personal finances as desperate and misguided.

“I am frankly saddened that Ms Mahuta consented to the release of this drivel,” said Tukoroirangi Morgan.

“In making these clumsy and baseless allegations, Ms Mahuta is allowing herself to be used by her party to attack one of her own. This is the same kupapa behaviour that the Paakeha colonists used so effectively against us 150 years ago.

“It is at these times that Ms Mahuta must hold to the values and aspirations she was raised to uphold: the values of faith, humility, respect and love. The values of Kiingitanga.

“Nanaia speaks of Maaori needing security in the workplace, when it was her party that unleashed the catastrophe of neoliberal market forces on our people.

“She speaks of trust, when it was her party that attempted to impose another raupatu on Maaori through their Foreshore & Seabed legislation.

“I say to you, Nanaia Mahuta: ‘I whea koe i te tangihanga o te Koekoea?’ Where were you when Tariana Turiana was forced to make the most difficult choice a politician will ever have to make; to choose between the people she represents and the party she believed would protect their interests?

Where were you when the labour Party launched an unprecedented attack on the lives of innocent families in Tuhoe. Why did you allow the Labour Minister of Police to send hundreds of armed Police to ransack and intrude in the Maori community of Ruatoki.

“I agree with Ms Mahuta, that the people she purports to represent need a Government who will bat for them. However our people need more than the prospect of an MP trotting off to Wellington and huffing and puffing on the Opposition benches.

“We need more than mere representation. We need a voice at the Cabinet table. A permanent one.

The Labour party have had seventy five years of loyalty from Maaori. Our interests were once very much in alignment and both Maaori and the Labour Party benefited from that historical arrangement. But times change. Todays challenges are more complex. And our interests no longer fit so comfortably within a broad-based political party.

“I say to Ms Mahuta and the Labour Party, you are swimming against an inexorable tide of rising Maaori aspirations, and expectations. You have a choice: to rise with that tide, or be overwhelmed by it.

“The Maaori Party is willing to support a resurgent Labour party. But we will do that as an independent, kaupapa-driven movement that we ourselves control.”

“The muddied waters Ms Mahuta speaks of do not originate in my activities. I am very clear about roles and responsibilities. I am proud of my record of achievements. They are there for all to see. Just one of those achievements was the $310m Waikato River settlement I co-negotiated on behalf of the iwi, with Nanaia’s mother, Lady Mahuta.

“My message to Mr Little and Ms Mahuta is: Do not fear the Maaori party. Work with us. Accept that Maaori have ‘grown up’ and are able to speak as a srong, intelligent and independent voice in Parliament.

ENDS

© Scoop Media