May 10, 2023
Defecting MPs jumping into the void says Jones
Former Labour and New Zealand First MP says last week’s party-hopping by two wāhine Māori MPs will only benefit the ACT Party, not Māori aspirations.
Ikaroa Rāwhiti MP Meka Whaitiri returned to Parliament yesterday to sit alongside the Māori Party, and former Green list MP Elizabeth Kerekere will sit as an independent.
Mr Jones says in the Ngāpuhi dialect ‘kerekere’ refers to the great void, and into that void Dr Kerekere has jumped.
He says Ms Whaitiri has still failed to explain why she abandoned her post as a cabinet minister and turned her back on her suffering constituents in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti who are still cleaning up cyclone damage.
“It has made Labour’s job harder. It has certainly improved the prospects of the ACT Party because many kiwis will look at these two women and they will conclude if that’s the future of new Zealand politics where two Māori MPs can betray their party with no open and apparent justification it just plays into the narrative of the ACT Party, and I’m surprised neither of them was able to learn the A-B-C of politics which is compromise,” Mr Jones says.
He says choices have consequences, and Meka Whaitiri will be seen as having cheated the system.