Simmering tensions at Ratana
The faultlines of this year’s election were in full view this week as the summer-bronzed Beehive brigade faced up to a tricky year ahead, writes Thomas Coughlan.
Ra¯ tana is all about history – even in Wellington, you don’t often hear the name of former Labour prime minister Michael Joseph Savage bandied about so liber- ally.
Hardly surprising, given that he died in 1940, before any of the current Labour caucus was born.
You do here, though. His name comes up in speeches at Ra¯ tana, pointedly punctuating long ko¯ rero in te reo.
Savage was the prime minister who reached a deal with the Ra¯tana movement, bringing its MPs into the party, inaugurating Labour’s stranglehold on the Ma¯ori seats, which lasted until 1993 when parties like NZ First and later the Ma¯ ori Party began making inroads.
Politicians now venture up to Ra¯ tana at the end of January each year, commemorating the birth of the prophet Tahupo¯ tiki Wiremu Ra¯ tana, the founder of the faith and movement.
For many, it’s the first time they’ve made a public appearance since Parliament adjourned in December. Some are unrecognisable, their faces flush with colour from the summer sun, a far cry from the halogen pallor they develop in the capital.
Even the Prime Minister’s daughter, Neve, made an appearance. Full of energy, she took to her feet during the speeches, and introduced herself to several members of the Government delegation, before taking a few swipes at Peeni Henare’s knees.
Referencing Neve, Jacinda Ardern joked that while she gifted harakeke to the pa¯ on her last visit in 2018, she might be tempted to leave her daughter this time.
‘‘Depending on how Neve behaves, I may gift her to you this time,’’ she said to laughter.
Ardern’s speech reflected a jovial mood. Speaking for Ra¯ tana, Rahui Papa welcomed Ardern and her baby, and joked that he also welcomed Winston Peters and his baby, Shane Jones.
Even Brian Tamaki, who made a brief appearance, found himself the subject of a gentle barb. A brief waiata needled his delegation and joked that they’d travelled to Ra¯tana on flash motorcycles.
But history is never too far away and Ra¯ tana this year began with faint echoes of events that rocked the leadership of Helen Clark, the last Labour leader to visit the pa¯ as prime minister.
In 2004, Labour’s Ma¯ ori caucus went into meltdown over the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act. Clark was forced into legislating a response to a Court of Appeal decision that opened up a pathway for Ma¯ori to claim back the Foreshore and Seabed. The Foreshore and Seabed Act vested title in the Crown, limiting Ma¯ori ownership to ‘‘guardianship’’.
New Zealand’s political spectrum was upended. Tariana Turia, who was at Ra¯tana on Friday, split off from Labour to form the Ma¯ori Party, which, unlike other such parties, survived for more than a decade and even made it into government.
The Ma¯ ori Party was front of mind at Ra¯tana, with the news that Jack McDonald, formerly the Green Party’s candidate in Te Tai Haua¯ uru, was swinging his support behind Ma¯ ori Party candidate Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, while still committing to party vote Green.
The endorsement underlined Labour’s tight majorities in the Ma¯ ori seats. At the 2017 election, Labour held the seat by just 1039 votes, having won it three years before by just 1554.
It holds the neighbouring Waiariki electorate by just 1719 votes. Were the Ma¯ori Party to flip any one of these seats, they’d bring not just one, but likely two or more MPs into Parliament thanks to the coat-tailing rule.
National leader Simon Bridges held out the olive branch, noting National had ‘‘worked well’’ with the party in the past.
But Labour shouldn’t be too worried just yet. Jack McDonald said his endorsement was based on the fact the current Ma¯ori Party was a very different creature from the one that propped up nine years of National government.
Ma¯ori Party president Che Wilson took to the microphone to call for ‘‘one rule for all’’, not as part of a latterday conversion to Brash-ism, but to decry the arming of police officers, which he saw as part of a US-style militarisation of police, who would target Ma¯ ori while letting everyone else go free.
It’s a position that might have found favour in the National Party of Bill English, who decried prisons as a ‘‘moral and fiscal failure’’, but not Bridges, who is weighing up a ‘Strike Force Raptor unit to go tough on gangs. McDonald said NgarewaPacker’s values aligned with his, which earned his endorsement. ‘‘What I’m trying to do here is model a different way of doing politics and the idea that even though you’re a member of one party that shouldn’t mean you can’t support people whose values align with you in other parties,’’ he said.
That a Ma¯ori Party candidate’s values line up with those of a candidate who fell out with the Greens over their move to the centre, should give some indication of just how difficult the new Ma¯ori Party would find working with National.
The bigger challenge for Labour is the one that appears to be the closest to resolution. The standoff at Ihuma¯ tao looks set to end with a deal that will likely halt the development and buy the land from Fletchers. One of the movement’s leaders, Pania Newton, was at Ra¯ tana on Friday.
The dispute is bigger than Ihuma¯ tao. Litigating the dispute cuts goes the ‘‘full and final’’ treaty settlements principle. The historic settlement process is based on the idea that one day, New Zealand will enter an post-Treaty era.
But the movement begun by Newton suggests full and final settlements will never be achieved. Instead, settlements can be reopened as issues like Ihuma¯ tao arise.
‘‘Ihuma¯ tao is indicative of the era we’re moving into. Governments of both stripes have pushed this idea of full and final settlements, and the post-settlement era. What Ihuma¯ tao shows is the fight for Treaty justice will never be over,’’ McDonald said.
Like the foreshore and seabed issue, it puts Labour in a difficult position, between supporters on its right, who want to resolve Treaty issues and move on, and supporters on its left, who see settlements and poor compensation for the manifold injustices of colonialism, a position taken openly by the Green Party.
History would say Labour can’t please both, but the party has never had a leader like Ardern. She joked on becoming leader that having once been ‘‘the president of an international youth organisation that had members from Lebanon, Palestine and Israel,’’ she was up to the task of negotiating with the Greens and NZ First.
Resolving whatever issues arise from Ihuma¯ tao will require all that skill and more.