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National | David Cunliffe

Māori raise thoughts as Election Day draws near

As Election Day draws near, a Māori Party-Labour coalition seems out of the question, despite most of Tāmaki Makaurau and Hauraki-Waikato wanting that exact thing.

However for the National Party an invite is still on the table for the Māori Party.

John Key says, “Look my view is that we've worked very effectively over the last six years they've got a lot of gains for Māori they've done a lot better being inside and around the table.”

If the elections were to be held tomorrow, according to Māori Television's Reid Research Polls, the Māori Party would have three members of Parliament.

According to Political commentator David Jones, “I'll put it this way about Cunliffe and his Labour Party, they've won about four seats in the Māori electorates, and the point of his stance is that he wants to capture votes, which is dividing Māori.”

“In the past few years, Māori have voted on the basis to increase the number of Māori in Parliament, and that's something Māori are striving for because if there are more Māori members of Parliament then Māori will have a greater voice.”

For some voters in Tāmaki Makaurau, the most important issue to them is family violence.

David Jones says, “This is a big problem which impacts on all families, hapū, iwi and the community so the politicians must begin with whānau.”

“This issue won’t only hit Parliament, so it must be analysed and addressed from Parliament level, to whānau, hapū and communities throughout Auckland.”

The biggest question on some peoples lips is whether or not Capital Gains Tax will affect Māori families.

David Jones says, “This Capital Gains tax policy released by Labour, is like a dog coming back to eat it's vomit as it was alright to begin with and then David Cunliffe was chewed up, so I think perhaps they should put Capital Gains to the side, because the traction is falling at a rapid pace.”

Statistics NZ results revealed that only 21% of Māori can speak Māori. That's a decline of 5%.  Te Kāhautu Maxwell was a member of Te Paepae Motuhake, charged with carrying out the review around the Māori language.

He says Te Mātāwai, part of the new Māori language strategy, is the solution.

Mr Maxwell states, “When analysing our current model, and trying to gain an understanding of all the various pools of Māori language funding out there, it became clear that the right hand has no idea about what the left hand is doing.”

Tomorrow, three Te Tai Tokerau candidates will have it out on Kōwhiri 14's last debate, and it's there that Māori will have a better gage on all of the Māori electorates.