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The Maori Party celebrates its 10th birthday this weekend with a party and a roast of its retiring MPs Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples.
Co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell says questions on the future leadership will be dealt with after the election, once it knows how many MPs it has to choose from.
He says even though current polls show it could struggle to stay in parliament, he doesn’t believe Maori people have given up on the party.
"When we started we set a couple of things in place. We aimed to be, as Whatarangi Winiata talked about at the time, a strong independent Maori voice in parliament with influence. We’re still strong and we will always be strong as long as there is one vote in it. One vote can make the difference between a bill going through, a law being passed and not being passed, it can be the difference between being in Government or otherwise, so we will always be strong as long as there is a voice in parliament," he says.
Mr Flavell says the Maori Party has proved its independence by voting against 42 Government bills and stopping a couple of Government bills being introduced in the last weeks of the current parliament.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH TE URUROA FLAVELL CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MTk5Nzk=
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