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OPINION: Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday’s debate had a town hall vibe. The Newshub Nation minor party debate was more of a drunken brunch.
It was filmed on Thursday night, but since the film won’t air until Saturday morning, the Auckland location was brighter than the October sun would at noon. Orange and apple juice were provided, but most of the audience and probably some of the competitors had participated in something a little stronger beforehand, matching the high bar seats they were sitting in.
Maori party
Maori Party co-leader John Tamihere has claimed victory after the party was excluded from a minority debate to be held by TVNZ.
Newshub won a court challenge to keep Advance NZ off the stage, so instead we got three parties that were already in Parliament and one that was in Parliament last term: Marama Davidson from the Green Party, David Seymour from ACT, John Tamihere of the Māori Party, and NZ First leader Winston Peters.
Everyone on stage had some kind of compelling narrative currently.
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Seymour’s popularity is increasing as National’s campaign has not caught fire.
Davidson’s campaign still feels reeling from the Green School debacle, and the prospect of exiting Parliament remains very real in the minds of many Green supporters.
Winston Peters only decided to join this debate after rejecting the idea, and currently claims that the Serious Fraud Office has exonerated his party and interfered with his electoral chances.
RICKY WILSON / Stuff
John Tamihere and Winston Peters share a moment.
And the only non-MP on stage, John Tamihere, is helping run one of the election’s most exciting campaigns – promising a new Maori Parliament, a massive property wealth tax, and much more.
Tamihere will most likely not return to Parliament in these elections. Despite his position as co-leader, he is in seventh place on the list and seems unlikely to beat Tāmaki Makaurau of Labor’s Peeni Henare.
Despite this, Tamihere was the clear protagonist of the debate: she interrupted to her heart’s content, steered the discussion toward her frame of the topic whenever possible, and delivered the most memorable lines. As he said on stage and at a press conference with reporters after the debate: He and the Maori Party are not going anywhere if they lose.
“From here to eternity, we are not going anywhere, the tangata whenua. From here to eternity we will seek justice and our right to go beyond the limit in the land of our ancestors, ”said Tamihere.
The debate itself stayed much closer to the Maori issues than the other leaders’ debates, possibly because all four leaders are Maori. (Tamihere was shocked and a bit incredulous when the media told her that Seymour was Maori.)
Tamihere and Peters, the most seasoned politicians on stage, engaged in a bit of buddy comedy, literally patting each other on the back and going from name calling to joking when the cameras were on and off.
Peters made some good lines and didn’t have any of the shaky hands that he brings to some media encounters. He acknowledged that NZ First was a bit of an underdog at the moment, but said the match had done well in that position before. It reminded Seymour and Tamihere that they weren’t Trump and Biden, so they didn’t need to interrupt as much.
Tamihere said Peters had been a great handbrake for the Maori and took certain positions to please the white elders.
RICKY WILSON / Stuff
Peters talks to his chief of staff.
His greatest ally on stage was, curiously, Davidson. Davidson is quite cold to Tamihere, the person, who has made a legion of enemies on the left with her history of sexist comments and Sieg Heil during the mayoral race, and told the media after the race that she had a long time for the rest of the race. party and it would be up to the voters to decide what to do with Tamihere.
But as parties, the Green Party and the Maori Party are in the middle of a bit of electoral romance, with candidates openly saying they would like to work with each other after the election, and a former Green candidate working for co-leader Debbie Ngarewa. -Packer.
Tamihere’s greatest enemy was Seymour, whom Tamihere tried to turn into an avatar of 1980s-style neoliberalism where “greed is good.” Seymour noted that he was in kindergarten in the 1980s, before heading to decile one school, but that didn’t keep him away from Tamihere.
At the top of the debate, Tamihere downplayed the success of the ACT polls.
“He is the recipient of the burned house, that is the house of the National Party. Judith’s job is to save the furniture. What she doesn’t understand is that David is out there getting a lot out of it, ”Tamihere said.
He was less jovial near the end when the subject passed to Ihumātao. Seymour said the prime minister’s intervention there was “siding with the squatters” and was the worst decision he had ever made.
RICKY WILSON
The four contenders.
“They are not squatters, they are mana whenua, they are not squatters, they are tangata whenua,” Tamihere replied.
“If someone steals something from you, give it back.”
It has been 15 years since Tamihere was last in Parliament. But he’s convinced he still wants that seat at the back of the table, even if it takes him another three years in the cold.
