INDEPENDENT NEWS

Ae Marika: Enemy of my enemy not always my friend

Published: Wed 2 Jul 2008 01:55 PM
Ae Marika
Hone Harawira
Enemy of my enemy not always my friend
Politicians are funny people. When the polls are going well, they’ll tell you how all the indicators point to them doing an excellent job. When the polls turn septic, they say “you can’t believe the polls anyway.” And that’s where Labour is sitting right now.
You’ll recall me saying a few weeks back that Labour was dying in the polls and that their last shot at pulling things back would be the Budget. Well, the Budget has been and gone, Labour has spent everything in the kitty and the polls continue to show that this election is going to be a no-contest, hands-down, drag-em-out victory for the Nats.
To make matters worse, Labour’s response is to go into denial mode, suggesting that not one, not two, but all three polls last week showing a twenty point gap between National and Labour, were not only “extreme” but that they were also “wrong.” Unfortunately however, TV1’s Digipoll has just come out and it too confirms the trend – Labour are gone for all money.
And the funny thing is that I’m not jumping for joy. I should be of course. Labour’s the thieving bunch that stole our foreshore and seabed, took Manaaki Tauira grants away from our kids, took Maori out of schools, took the Treaty out of the curriculum and voted to take the Treaty out of all legislation. They stand between us and a clean sweep of the other three Maori seats. In electoral terms, they are our declared enemy. I mean these guys suck!
So, I should be jumping for joy at the demise of this Labour government, but the gap between Labour and National is so great, that it’s looking like National will have the numbers to either govern alone or with their ACT buddies – killing off Labour, but also freezing out the poor old Maori Party!
Labour’s been trying to drum up a lot of fear about how bad National will be for Maori, and trying to force the Maori Party to declare our support for them. But it don’t take much of a look at the record of both parties to realise that neither of them are pro-Maori at all.
So we’re just going to be focusing on the big picture for now, and doing our bit to give Maori voters the best chance to keep a strong and independent Maori voice in the House, by winning all seven Maori seats.
ENDS

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