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meIt was one of the most passionate clashes of Saturday night’s elections: Rawiri Waititi of the Maori Party and Tamati Coffey of the Labor Party were hand in hand until the end.
Counting on the night, Waititi was ahead by a narrow margin of 415 votes, but the bottom line will come down to the remaining half a million “special votes” that have yet to be counted.
Nonetheless, the Maori Party is excited: returning the important Maori headquarters of Waiariki to the Maori Party and securing its return to parliament would be an important milestone.
It will be a nervous game of wait and see for both parties, but ultimately the underdog Māori Party and its supporters should be satisfied with their achievements.
Despite the red landslide that saw Jacinda Ardern’s Labor Party crush it and win 49.1% of the vote nationally, the Maori Party candidates came closer than expected by a couple of seats.
This shows the success of their intense grassroots campaign and social media presence, but more importantly, it shows that a growing number of voters believe that Maori Party candidates will speak for them and Labor MPs will not.
This should concern the Maori Labor MPs. They thought they had him in the bag from the start, but it is clear that his performance in the last term has left many Maori voters wanting to do so.
Maori Labor MPs will need to step up their game if they want to keep the Maori electorate seats they have won after the next elections in 2023.
They will have to be seen speaking out forcefully about Maori issues and not just following the party line. They will have to push to resolve outstanding issues such as the dispute over the land of Ihumaatao.
To their credit, the Labor Party now has 15 Maori MPs in parliament, the largest Maori group in history, but Maori will want to see a transformative change from themselves and the party in this period. There are no excuses. Work can rule alone. Gone is New Zealand First, the self-proclaimed handbrake on any major left-wing reform in the last coalition government.
That means retouching the edges will no longer cut it. The Maori are now calling for much-needed systemic change to eliminate the dire results of the Maori.
The Maori Labor caucus is large enough to demand action within the party, but is unlikely to do so. Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis was asked on Sunday if the caucus would do such a thing and he replied that they are firmly united as a Labor Party.
But what is certain is that the pressure on them will increase if Waititi is in the House, promising to be a strong voice for the Maori and to hold the government to account.
The nation tested its leadership skills and tenacity when Covid-19 began to spread in Aotearoa, closing the borders in its tribal territory on the east coast. He was the first to put up barricades, defying the law to protect his vulnerable community.
Maori voters will expect the same relentless energy from him if he enters, but it will be difficult to do so on his own.
What is also up in the air is whether Labor will try to bring Waititi in or not. It is not a bad idea, as it could reduce the risk of being criticized at every opportunity.
The election results should make Maori voters optimistic. Much depends on special votes, but a national lean to the left provides a platform for real change for Maori.
Leigh-Marama McLachlan is a former Maori news correspondent based in New Zealand. He directs the communications of his Maori tribe and Te Awa Tupua, the first river in the world to obtain legal entity status.
