Issue 84 - editorial

He aha te mea nui?

What is the most important thing?

I guess in the next few weeks we’re going to get a whole lot of answers to that question as we head into the general election.

We now have a date – 8 November. In the past the big contest has been between the two main parties National and Labour but this election is shaping up to be a real humdinger. If the polls are right National will win the greater number of seats but Labour could still govern depending on how many seats the minor parties get and who they align themselves with.

National has sharpened up the contest by saying that regardless of the election outcome they will not go into coalition with New Zealand First. Labour on the other hand won’t form a government with an ACT component.

That leaves us with some interesting scenarios. There is a big question as to whether or not NZ First will make it back into the Parliament at all. While the polls suggest that Winston Peters will not win back his old Tauranga seat, and also suggest that NZ First won’t get over the five percent required to get list members into the House, the ‘Winston’ factor and the backlash over donations to NZ First could still pull them over the line.

And what will happen with the Maori Party which is still fighting a first past the post election in the Maori seats? If it does win all seven Maori seats it would be in a position to influence the next government and considerably strengthen the Maori voice in government.

I have been trying hard, probably harder than I need to – to be as neutral as possible on these issues considering my own position as a candidate for the Maori Party.

That’s one reason why in this issue we asked prominent Maori members of five political parties to answer one simple question: Why should Maori vote for you?

You can mull over their answers and judge for yourself what each of them made of this opportunity to present their unmodified views.

By the time we publish our next issue we’ll have a new government. We’ll be able to reflect on the whether or not the vision presented by our cover artist Murray Webb was in any sense prophetic! We’ll no doubt have some new Maori MPs to report on. And we’ll have some idea of how the next three years will shape up for Maori as we assess the effects of a new government.

Kia ora