May 31, 2013
Jones gets Labour’s Māori role
Labour’s new Māori Affairs spokesperson says he’s looking forward to making minister Pita Sharples explain to Parliament why Māori are going backwards on his watch.
List MP Shane Jones replaces the late Parekura Horomia in the shadow position, while Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene picks up the role of Treaty of Waitangi spokesperson.
Mr Jones says Dr Sharples has been almost absent from parliament’s question time, but that will change.
"So much has slipped away from the purview of parliament and the media has become quite ignorant about how poorly Māori fortunes are evolving and how much the well being of our people has ebbed since Pita has been the minister. Now he won't like that and he does have his strengths but this is about showing our people that the experiment of Pita sitting at the table, as he puts it, has been an abject failure," he says.
Mr Jones says the Maori affairs role is not one he sought but he will seize the opportunity the party has given him.
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