Barry Soper: Holiday Promises ‘Skillful Political Move’ for Labor

Commentary:

The Prime Minister’s proclamation of a twelfth holiday for New Zealand was a clever political move.

Jacinda Ardern has to be in a position to form a government to implement it, but if you were gambling, she would have to be a favorite.

The last public holiday, Waitangi Day, was created almost 50 years ago. It was for a time renamed New Zealand Day to make it more representative.

There is no question of the reasoning behind Matariki, it is a Maori celebration of their New Years that in recent years has certainly been growing in recognition.

But so has the Labor consciousness that retaining Treasury seats relies on retaining the Maori vote which it sometimes seems to have forgotten.

He was seen to have dropped the ball at his annual conference when last year came to a close, electing Claire Szabo as president over Tane Phillips, the party’s longtime Maori vice president and union organizer, who was the clear favorite with the party’s growing Maori contingent.

There are currently 13 members of the party’s Maori caucus in Parliament, and another seven Maori knock on the door in these elections. Labor now occupies all seven Maori seats with the demise of the Maori party in the last election, but the defeated party has candidates in all seven seats next month and has even managed to fight its way into a television debate.

The workers, and in particular Jacinda Ardern, set out to occupy the land in Ihumātao, preventing legal owner Fletchers from starting his house-building project. More than a year later, that remains unresolved and so is Maori frustration, though MPs who depend on Labor for their jobs are fiercely loyal to Ardern.

Maori caucus chair Willy Jackson has become her cheerleader and last month declared her “an angel.”

Jackson said her natural instinct was to fight and fight the Opposition “and she kind of takes us away from all of that, she has that old style where we’re better at, we don’t have to get involved, we don’t have to.” we pass information on, we don’t have to expose other deputies, we are better. “

Few if any Maori would dispute Ardern’s decision on Matariki, even if the companies that will have to pay the price of the new holiday did.

Ardern hopes that Matariki, who signals the alignment of the stars in the depths of winter, will be enough to keep them shining for her in this election.