Have Te Pati Maori given up on Tamaki Makarau?
Their candidate is a disaster
If the voters of Tamaki Makarau send Oriini Kaipara to Parliament this Saturday they need a collective mental health assessment where the first question should be “are you barking mad?”
In the history of New Zealand politics has there ever been such a trainwreck of a serious political candidate as Ms Kaipara?
Consider these scenarios – they have all happened.
On the Tuesday before the final polling day she refuses to answer questions from a TV political reporter – and a Maori female one at that.
She has suggested her main opponent for the seat, Peeni Henare, should be the first Maori Prime Minister, something that is surely unlikely if Mr Henare loses a seat twice in succession after winning it in three consecutive elections from 2014.
Her big set piece interview on TV’s Q and A was a complete disaster. She claimed that Te Pati Maori have repealed various pieces of legislation despite never having been in government and being in opposition since 2023. Only governments repeal legislation.
When asked about an aspect of Te Pati Maori policy she stumbled and mumbled and then, unbelievably, said she needed to refer to her phone to get the right answer – then couldn’t find her phone!
For someone who has worked in television her performance on Q and A was hopeless.
Then there is the way she looks. Yes, it’s sexist to ever comment on a woman’s appearance but have you compared Ms Kaipara in her quite recent TV days - she finished at TV3 less than two years ago - to now? She was a stunningly beautiful wahine Maori who somehow has quickly morphed into a 41 year old with eyes that have lost their sparkle and cheekbones that look as if they’ve dropped. Her almost haggard look is enough to ask the question – is she well?
As politics these days is as much a celebrity as a policy contest, Oriini Kaipara should have had a massive head start in this by-election. She had the TV profile which is usually accompanied by the gift of the gab and the ability to sell oneself, against a middle-aged and slightly paunchy List MP who somehow lost a safe seat in the 2023 election.
(Just how that happened is another story which won’t be discussed further here but the silence around the circumstances of that result in this campaign speaks plenty.)
In the final few days of campaigning Oriini Kaipara appears so far out of depth that her leader is doing the talking and making the excuses for her.
Rawiri Waititi says they’re now having her concentrate on talking directly to the voters and not to the media. They’re playing what he calls a “ground game.”
Hmmm.
It is possible to do both, and on the same day. Most aspiring politicians do. Only those scared of winning office hide from a TV camera, especially one who was once a TV journalist. Speaking through the media is a far more effective way of campaigning than talking to shoppers at Manukau Mall.
Then more excuses. Te Pati Maori co-leader saying on 1News that “her policy knowledge is where she should be, in a very short period of time.” Fully prepped candidates know their policy, especially four days out from polling day.
Waititi realises he has a major issue. Te Pati Maori have picked a very poor candidate who should come a distant second to Peeni Henare.
More disturbing so far is the low turnout. There are 43,796 registered to vote in Tamaki Makarau. Polling booths are open for 12 days before the official polling day on Saturday September 6th. After 8 of those days only 3216 votes had been cast. Maybe the pace of polling will pick up and there could be a huge turnout on Saturday. But don’t hold your breath. In the 2023 General Election 27,885 votes were cast in Tamaki Makarau, a turnout of 65 percent. Nationwide turnout was 78 percent, but in all seven Maori electorates turnout was under 70 percent.
Despite what their leaders want, Maori voters are just not as exercised as the general population. The low quality Te Pati Maori candidate in this by-election is not going to improve the situation.
In earlier interviews, Kaipara also claimed Seymour's Regulatory Standards Bill was being entrenched (!) and that she wanted to bring back the schools lunch programme — apparently unaware it had been trimmed by the Coalition govt but not scrapped.
It should also be noted that she was not only a newsreader but a co-host (with Simon Shepherd) on Newshub Nation, where it was frequently obvious she was not well equipped for the task.
Peter, The Partly Maori Party are not the Maori people’s leaders. They are a bunch of misfits and grifters led by the biggest grifter of them all John Tamahere, exploiting the electoral system to create huge divisions in our country’s society. Having watched the settlement process be hijacked, and the insidious scope creep over decades, I continually see, intelligent commentators like yourself misrepresenting what the separatists are doing, and helping embed the tactics they use. It’s bad enough that they have infiltrated so many of our institutions over fifty years and that left wing MSM assist them, but many fair minded people such as yourself have fallen for their fairy tale. Maori no longer exist as a distinct race. They like most of us are a group of mixed ancestry. Unfortunately, even after over two hundred years, a small group have tried to hang on to their tribal power and perpetuated the primitive might is right mindset inherent in the way life was lived before the rest of the world arrived. They successfully sprinkle Maori words where they have defined the meaning through every part of the debate. They twist history and even clear documents such as the treaty, pretending it’s to help “their people “ who are just New Zealanders like the rest of us. Please be careful not to help them perpetuate their propaganda.