Tirikatene’s Bill faces rocky path
BEING the MP for Te Tai Tonga is one of the more thankless jobs in Parliament.
It is the biggest seat in the country, but it is more than big — it is vast, being four times larger than CluthaSouthland.
It is also a nearimpossible job to reflect the interests of all your constituents.
Maori voters in Wellington have different concerns to those across Cook Strait in Blenheim; the concerns of Kaikoura are not necessarily those of Christchurch, and Dunedin and Invercargill face different issues, too.
That said, Rino Tirikatene has a deeper understanding of his electorate than most MPs: his grandfather Eruera Tirikatene and aunt Whetu TirikateneSullivan were MPs for the former Southern Maori seat for a combined 64 years.
Mr Tirikatene does not have the natural knack of his aunt for making a headline — she was as prominent for her adoption of Maori design in her clothing and pushing for women’s rights in Parliament as she was for her political achievements in making Cabinet.
However, that may change this year as a member’s Bill sponsored by Mr Tirikatene comes under select committee consideration.
The Electoral (Entrenchment of Maori Seats) Amendment
Bill is almost certain to garner attention — anything to do with the Maori seats usually does.
Certain provisions in the Electoral Act, such as the voting age and the threeyear term, are ‘‘entrenched’’ — it takes a super majority of 75% of MPs to amend or repeal them.
Mr Tirikatene’s Bill aims to afford clauses relating to Maori seats the same protection — a red rag to politicians such as Don Brash who have argued the seats should be scrapped entirely.
There is actually a legal argument that the seats are already entrenched, because provisions regarding the Representation Commission — which determines the size of seats, including the Maori seats — are entrenched.
There is also a Parliamentary argument that the Bill will never pass: standing orders say any entrenchment provision cannot pass without a 75% majority and National is almost certain to vote against it.
In the meantime though, the Bill has gone to the Maori Affairs select committee and received public submissions.
Its first reading featured a lively verbal brawl between Mr Tirikatene, his Labour colleague Willie Jackson, and the National Party.
Expect more fireworks when the Bill returns to the House.
Holiday? What holiday?
While the rest of us were powering down over Christmas break, CluthaSouthland National MP Hamish Walker was just getting started.
In the past few weeks, Mr Walker has sent out shedloads of press releases . . . not just more than any of his colleagues, but he may well have put out more than the actual Government itself.
Somewhere in the middle of all that he managed to get married — to Penny Tipu, who must be very, very understanding.
One step closer
Agnes Loheni takes her seat in Parliament as a National MP this week, replacing the now retired Chris Finlayson.
That means the party’s 2017 Dunedin South candidate Matt Gregory is just that little bit closer to increasing the South’s Parliamentary representation.
Mr Gregory has three men ahead of him on the 2017 election list: Auckland lawyer Paulo Garcia, Northlander
Matt King (already an electorate MP) and Christchurch tourism entrepreneur David Hiatt.
With several senior National MPs likely considering when or if they might leave Parliament, and the fallout from the JamiLee Ross saga still playing out, it is not beyond the realms of possibility Mr Gregory will move up a few places yet in the next 12 months.
Show of support?
On Friday Invercargill National MP Sarah Dowie made her first, brief, public statement since it was revealed that she sent a text message which is now subject of a police investigation.
Her leader, Simon Bridges, said he would not stand Ms Dowie down during the police investigation, and expected her to contest the 2020 election as the MP for Invercargill.
It is, presumably, implicit in that statement that Ms Dowie will also be National’s candidate for the seat . . . but you never know what might happen in politics.