PM’s fresh start with Maori King
The last time a Labour Party leader visited the Maori King he was rushed off the marae in a golf cart.
Next month Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will head to Waikato’s Turangawaewae marae for an official sit-down with the King and the Government will be hoping her fate is better than that of her predecessor’s, Andrew Little.
In August 2016, Little attended the King’s coronation where King Tuheitia made a speech that threw Kingitanga (the Maori King movement) support behind the Maori Party.
He went on to later endorse the party’s candidate, Rahui Papa, in the Hauraki-Waikato seat over his own niece, Nanaia Mahuta, who subsequently increased her majority and is now the Maori development minister.
When Little’s staff got word that Tuheitia was about to unleash on Labour they whisked him into a golf cart and shot off the marae before the controversial speech took place.
A Labour leader hasn’t been back since, though Mahuta has built a bridge with Tuheitia since the election.
Whanau Ora Minister Peeni Henare, who is on Tekau Ma Rua the King’s 12-person council, also maintains a relationship with him.
While Papa, a spokesman for Tuheitia, says Ardern should expect a ‘‘warm and welcome reception’’, there are questions remaining over where the King’s political feelings rest.
Over the weekend, the Maori Party held its AGM ion Rotorua, and selected Che Wilson as its new president to take over from outgoing Tukoroirangi Morgan – one of Tuheitia’s closest advisers.
Wilson is also on Tekau Ma Rua – so while Morgan has cut the tie between the King and the Ma¯ ori Party, his replacement has stitched it back together.
Wilson said his role on the council is a ‘‘hereditary role’’ and separate from the one he has with the Ma¯ ori Party.
Ardern says she has a diary clash on March 17 when the King will hold his annual regatta – an event she’s been formally invited to –but a meeting between the pair has been organised for later in the month.
She’s not concerned that the last official visit went badly and sees it as an ‘‘opportunity to talk about future work we can undertake together’’.
Ardern has no plans to let relationships between other political parties and the King ‘‘get in the way of us having a really beneficial relationship’’.