Waatea News Update

News from Waatea 603 AM, Urban Maori radio, first with Maori news

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Fear of second Maori party

March 14

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says another Maori political party will split the effectiveness of the Maori voice in parliament.

Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira is threatening to launch a party after his split over the Maori Party's continued support for National.

Mrs Turia says it's one thing to raise issues in Opposition, but Mr Harawira seems to ignore how much the Maori Party has achieve by presenting a united front in government.

“It does definitely split the effectiveness. It will have huge impact on the left of polticis with a political movement coming in that is primarily of the left. W are not,. We are very clear our party isdriven bty kaupapa and tikanga so we can sit with whoever is the government.
Mrs Turia says.

HOUSING PRESSURE LEADING TO VIOLENCE DANGER

The Wellington Women's Refuge says pressure on housing supplies created by the Christchurch earthquake will make it harder for women to leave violent relationships.

Education coordinator Eleanor Butterworth says refuges are often a bridge between the family home and the place women find to build a new life for themselves and their children.

She says the flow of people from Christchurch into all available places makes it hard to move women on, and the domestic purposes benefit isn’t enough to cover private rentals.

About 10 percent of women and children in Wellington's refuges are Maori, and the percentage is higher in other refuges.

MAORI BATTALION VETERAN JOHN PALMER DIES

The 28th Maori Battalion has lost another veteran.

John Keha Palmer, a member of the Otaki-based Tahiwi family with links also to Gilbert Mair, the commander of Te Arawa forces in the New Zeland wars, died peacefully in his home on Friday at the age of 90.

Historian Monty Soutar says there are now only 43 surviving veterans.

He says Mr Palmer, from D Company, was captured in Greece and spent four years in a German prisoner of war camp.

John Palmer is lying in state at his home in Pahiatua.

GOFF RULES OUT WORKING WITH HARAWIRA IN GOVERNMENT

Labour leader Phil Goff has ruled out a coalition with a Hone Harawira-led party.

Mr Goff says he can envisage working with the Maori Party, although it could struggle to retain its seats if Mr Harawira stands candidates in the other Maori seats.

But he says while Labour's Maori MP's have supported the Taitokerau MP's attacks on the Marine and Coastal Area Bill, this does not make him someone who should be brought into government.

“I've ruled it out firstly because I don’t regard him a reliable coalition partner and I’ve ruled it out secondly because his position on a number of issues is so extreme I didn’t see that as being part of a Labour-led Government,” Mr Goff says.

He says the majority of voters in the Maori seats gave their party vote to Labour last election, so may be less inclined to give their electorate vote to the Maori Party this year.

JACKSON SACRIFICE ON ACT BEACH BARBEQUE

Former Alliance MP Willie Jackson says his invitation to speak at the Act Party conference now seems like a set-up.

The urban Maori advocate's speech was bracketed by speeches from alleging Maori get special treatment.

He says while he was given a polite hearing, he doubts his korero will change the views of the people ACT is now looking to for support.

“When you place the race card it always gives you an opportunity. I’m hoping they won’t. I’m hoping they disappear. Winston did it through the 80s, 90s, Don Brash did it. I’m hoping the public will be bored with them but playing the race card is an old political trick,” Mr Jackson says.

TOURISM BUSINESS ON SHAKY GROUND

A major player in the Maori tourism sector says the industry is being hit hard by the Christchurch earthquake.

Mike Tamaki from Tamaki Tours says while most of the quake damage was confined to Christchurch city, many international tour operators are behaving as if the whole South Island is a no go zone.

He says Maori and non-Maori tourism businesses alike will do it tough in the months ahead, with some operators unlikely to resume at all and many firms writing off the season.

While there was little apparent damage to the Tamaki Maori Experience village in Ferrymead, a spokesperson says it could be several weeks before it might be cleared to reopen.

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