Taa Mark Solomon has ruled out standing for the Maori Party.
The Ngai Tahu leader has been strongly rumoured to be a likely contender in Te Tai Tonga as part of new president Tukoroirangi Morgan’s strategy of putting up high profile candidates to wrest back the seats from Labour.
But Taa Mark, who is currently immersed in Ngai Tahu’s efforts to get earthquake relief to its people in Kaikoura, says he turned down the offer to stand.
"Coming out of 18 years of 80 hours a week, do i want to go back into the time commitments of a politician? No. besides that, i like working in the Maori world, and I think there are still things I can do in the Maori world," he says
Taa Mark was also offered a seat on another runaka which would have allowed him to stay on as head of Ngai Tahu, but he decided it wasn’t right to represent a constituency other than his own Kaikoura hapu.
