September 25, 2017
Voter discomfort behind Maori Party clean-out
Hauraki Waikato MP Nanaia Mahuta says there is a mood for change in the Maori seats that needs to be reflected in a change of Government.
The long-serving MP easily fended off a challenge from the Maori Party's Rahui Papa.
Labour took the other six Maori seats, with newcomer Tamati Coffey wrenching Waiariki off Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell.
It has another six Maori MPs in its caucus in either general or list seats.
Ms Mahuta says the Maori Party failed to learn the lesson from 2014, when it lost two seats, that Maori voters were unhappy with the outcomes they were seeing under the National-led Government.
"Just basic things like cost of living, people doing it harder, working longer, not being recognised in the workplace through good pay. Those are bread and butter issues Maori are facing that are important to those people heading out to the booths that we cannot overlook while we are taking forward aspirations like te reo, like kura kaupapa Maori medium education, things like that, so you can't compromise one for another because voters will come out and say these are the things that are most important to us," she says.
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