Labour’s Mahuta defeats Rahui Papa
Nanaia Mahuta cruised to election victory in the HaurakiWaikato electorate.
She recorded 12,070 votes compared to her opponent, first-time Ma¯ori Party candidate Rahui Papa, who received 4619.
There was anticipation of a tighter race after Ma¯ori King Tuheitia - to whom Mahuta is a close friend, relative and adviser - abandoned the Labour Party and switched his loyalty to the Ma¯ori Party and Papa.
‘‘I never take an election for granted. I’ve been clear in this election about the issues that Labour would seek to implement to improve the lives of wha¯nau that I represent. And they’ve heard that message, and they’ve spoken, and they’ve returned me back to Parliament for three years,’’ Mahuta said.
She feels that the Ma¯ori Party did itself no favours during the campaign.
‘‘The Ma¯ori Party has to take some responsibility for why they didn’t get their message well understood, and why voters didn’t have confidence that they were still going to back them.
‘‘So I think we’re expecting fairly negative comments from the Ma¯ori Party, because effectively what Tamati Coffey has achieved in Waiariki, which is winning that seat and unseating a minister, has been a huge blow to supporters of the Ma¯ori Party.’’
‘‘The outcome tonight has demonstrated that people were really clear when they went to the polling booth about what they were voting for. Their lives have not improved, they wanted a change, and they have confidence in the leadership that provide on their behalf, on the issues that matter.’’
‘‘People sleeping in cars, harder to find a home, rents going up, unstable work: those are the things that people are struggling with and it’s clear to me and especially across all the Ma¯ori electorates, that Ma¯ori voters, in particular, do want a change.’’
As for Papa, he learnt a big lesson in his short taste of politics, having only entered the race in June.
‘‘Now I know what it’s about. But there are too many variables to ascertain what happened or what didn’t happen.
‘‘The biggest learning curve is that people think I’m too humble and I agree. I need to be a bit more aggressive.
‘‘Winston [Peters], who looks to be king maker, but he is racist as hell.
‘‘There’s Nanaia, who is going to be catapulted into the opposition, but that’s not going to do Ma¯ori any favours,’’ Papa said.
Papa resigned as chairman of Waikato-Tainui executive arm Te Arataura in June and was unsure about his future career options.