Labour promises largest-ever Maori caucus after election

Labour put on a show of unity yesterday following Monday’s divisions over its party list, with party leader Andrew Little and candidate Willie Jackson fronting the media and promising a record number of Maori in the party’s post-election caucus.

Jackson said he was disappointed at his 21st placing on the list, but Little had given a ‘‘good shot’’ at getting him in the top 10. But he refused to say whether he had asked for a higher placing during talks on Monday.

After crisis talks late on Monday, the party finally unveiled its list to media, under embargo, almost 12 hours after it was initially slated for release. It confirmed Jackson’s position was unchanged from that finalised on Sunday, although at 21 he is virtually assured of election even at Labour’s current poll rating of about 30 per cent.

Little said what happened on Monday was ‘‘unfortunate with people speaking out of turn’’.

Labour’s six Maori electorate MPS stood aside from the list to run as electorate-only candidates and the highest ranked Maori on the list is Willow-jean Prime at 16.

But Labour Maori senior vice president Tane Phillips predicted all six of the electorate MPS would win their seats. Jackson has been appointed Maori campaign director for the election in a move the party said was decided last week, before the list was finalised.

Jackson, a former Alliance MP and broadcaster, was shouldertapped by Little. Little said he had offered Jackson a winnable seat, and that had happened.

The list was as reflective and representative of New Zealand as possible.

‘‘I wanted to to make sure that we had our ethnic community representatives, in particular Chinese and Indian, as high up the list as possible because we made the mistake last time of having them too far down and we have been in the embarrassing position until recently of having no Chinese or Indian MP for the Labour Party,’’ Little said.

‘‘That won’t happen again after 2017.’’