Drowning Clark grasping at Maori straws

Desperate stuff from the Prime Minister today.

Knowing that Winston Peters may not return come election day, she has now latched on to the Maori Party.

To people she once described as "haters and wreckers" and "the last cab off the rank" Clark will now flip flop again on Labour Party policy by entrenching the Maori seats.

"Its not our policy" in an answer to a Gyon Espiner question before the 2005 Election to entrenchment in 2008.

Maori voters should be well warned that this is nothing but a political move. She has had 9 years to move on this and just as her head is about to slip into the waters of political oblivion she now loves Maoris again.

Shameful desperate politics.

c Political Animal 2008

 

Maori Party voters better off with a National Government

There has been much talk in recent weeks about the Maori Party's new romance with John Key and National.

The Maori Party have publicly slagged Helen Clark and Winston Peters, the former for being a washed up pollie on her way out, and the latter an issue of deep distrust over Peters and his philandering ways with undisclosed donations.

The Maori Party are right to cosy up to National, they are both inherently conservative, apart from the basic racist platform that the Maori Party operate under, and both have a long history of connections with each other-National were the first to kick off the major treaty agreements that we are now seeing Labour take credit for.

National are in a position, given their strong and sustained poll ratings, to offer Maori Party voters and Maori voters in the Maori and general seats more, the Maori Party know that and Key is far more pragmatic and easier to negotiate with than Clark, so will make any post election deal far easier.

In negotiations after a probable National Party majority win, National may need Maori Party support and the delivery of results under National for Maori in the 1990s would continue under a National banner this century.

If we look at how poorly Maori population have been served in the last nine years under Labour we don't have to look far at the disappointing statistics:

Higher Maori unemployment and dependant on welfare

Poor health outcomes

Lower levels of education participation

Maori make up a much larger proportion of the crime and prison population

And so it goes on.

The outcomes for Maori have been far worse under Labour for the last nine years and the unpopular "Seabed and Foreshore Act"  passed by Labour was the impetus for the birth of the Maori Party and Maori Party members and wider Maori haven't forgotten that.

The crack by Clark before the 2005 election that:

"The Maori Party would be the last cab off the rank in any coalition talks,"

will also come back to haunt her and her party during the 2008 campaign, although earlier this week her last cab remark was replaced by a "first limo" statement about any possible 2008 coalition negotiations with the Maori Party because she is desperate.

A National/Maori Party coalition would be a natural and exciting fit for a new government until 2011 and Labours last minute attempts to curry favour with wider Maori by passing treating claims at breakneck speed is unlikely to help.

The only solution to the current problem therefore is for Maori Party voters to give their party vote to National instead of labour.

c Political Animal 2008

Tony Veitch and Fox stories cunning diversions

Although muck raking by the Labour Party has become something of an art form of late, and will no doubt become something of a masterpiece as the 2008 Election draws nearer, the distribution of news of the latest "wife-beating" scandal to hit New Zealand, Derek "The Muss" Fox, after Tony"left handed" Veitch, by a Labour staffer seems more of an inside job within the racist Maori Party, rather than another hole being dug by Ms Clark and her minions.

Besides the bloated porker Parekura "I want another sandwich" Horomia being threatened by Derek "I hate whitey" Fox and his running against Labour's Horomia, Labour has little else to gain by making this sort of move.

I could be wrong though, Labour have been on a suicide mission recently with bad news coming out every day from gaffs by ministers and bureaucrats. Only the Tony Veitch and Derek Fox stories have taken Ms Clark's crumbling goverment off the headlines as mainstream media "journalists" scramble for the salacious stuff.

These stories are indeed well timed and if one were a conspiracy nutbag, one might think of other motivations for people currently in power to leak these kinds of headline grabbing sagas.

It is classic Labour Party stuff.

The polls toll for Labour
Lets take a break
Is a coup against Helen Clark's leadership likely?

c Political Animal 2008