September 14, 2017
Labour Maori candidates shrug off recent history
Meka Whaitiri is pushing back against the Minister for Maori Development Te Ururoa Flavell's claim that Labour has softened its opposition to his Ture Whenua Maori Bill.
She says he's deliberately misinterpreting something said in the heat of debate by his Waiariki rival Tamati Coffey.
Labour's policy is still to scrap his plan for a radical rewrite and to instead make improvements to the existing Maori land law.
She says it's an issue that has many landowners shifting their vote from the Maori Party to Labour.
And Ms Whatiri says Maori Party billboards reminding voters the 2007 Tuhoe raids happened under a Labour government are scaremongering.
"The Labour Party today is not the party that initiated those raids. Nor is it the party that initialed the Foreshore and Seabed (Act). All the Maori MPs and all the Maori candidates have it well drilled in to them of Labour's stuff up regarding the foreshore and seabed and the Tuhoe raids. I can guarantee you Labour won;'t be going back into those dark days and that is what our people want to see – leadership from learning from our past mistakes," she says.
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