May 08, 2023
Political trade-offs tough for wāhine Māori
A Māori political scientist says the resignations of two wāhine Māori MPs point to the difficulty of working within essentially Pakeha parties.
Ikaroa Rāwhiti MP Meka Whaitiri quit Labour for the Māori Party on Wednesday, and two days later Gisborne-based list MP Elizabeth Kerekere resigned from the Green Party after an argument about how an investigation in a contentious chat message was being handled.
Victoria University politics lecturer Lara Greaves says both women are in an area facing major challenges from cyclones, Covid, and poverty meaning they would have had to fight hard for their people with their parties.
“We can understand and see their positions, why they would really be wanting to fight for their people within those parties and of course both of them are within kaupapa pakeha parties, the Green Party and the Labour Party. I think both of them seem to have struggled with the team around them, with the focus of the party and what they could and couldn’t do within those parties,” she says.
Dr Greaves says it’s hard to know what goes on inside political parties, but Māori in mainstream institutions have to learn to pick their fights.