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Source: ONE News -
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Don Brash must be clutching his head and tearing out what's left of his comb-over.
Brash came within a whisker of being Prime Minister in 2005, having a year earlier smashed the political consensus by declaring war on what are effectively affirmative action programmes for Maori, pursued for decades by both National and Labour.
You'll probably remember the billboards (Iwi/Kiwi) and certainly recall the slogan: One Law for All.
Now, it's not a breaking news exclusive to report that John Key is not Don Brash; that he has a more tolerant and modern approach to race relations and that he sought partnership with the Maori Party to forge a new relationship between their voters and his centre right party.
In the case of separate Maori seats on the "super-size-me" Auckland Council , Key has had to crush Maori Party hopes.
But I wonder whether the high expectations voiced in recent weeks about Maori Party policy victories may be the source of future trouble for National.
A Maori prison - run by Maori, for Maori, where you have to learn Maori to get in? Now, we'd have to see some more detail. Is it simply a Maori-focused unit adjoined to an established prison, which is used mainly for rehabilitation at the end of a sentence, like an extended version of the Maori units which already exist?
Or does it give rise to the scenario Labour's Clayton Cosgrove so brutally lays out: "Your wife gets raped by a Pakeha, and he goes to the clink, the prison. Your wife gets raped by a Maori person, and he goes off and goes flatting with his mates in some sort of strange, separatist concept."
So what about social spending? Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia is promoting the idea of slicing off about 2% of the government's $62 billion budget - roughly $1 billion - to spend on improving Maori social outcomes in areas such as education and health.
Again, it could be a good idea. Former Labour Party Minister John Tamihere has long been an advocate of devolution, of cutting out the myriad of meddling social agencies and letting Maori manage their own problems and resources.
But once you start funding separate prisons and begin developing separate education and health budgets, some people - both Maori and Pakeha - are going to get nervous.
The real sleeper is the Foreshore and Seabed review . Maori Party expectations are very high. Of course they are. This is the very issue the party formed over.
Remember the reaction from Pita Sharples when asked at the review launch some weeks back, what he would do if the advisory group came back and said the current law was working fine? "We'll probably sack them and put another group in." A joke perhaps, but never a truer word spoken in jest.
The really interesting thing will be to watch the reaction of the Labour Party.
They hated Brash's divisive and destructive strategy to the core. They detested his ability to get under the skin of the electorate at their expense - and, they believed, at the expense of good race relations.
Most of all they hated having to change their policy and approach to head him off. From 2000 Labour poured money into trying to increase Maori wellbeing under the flagship Closing the Gaps programme, but eventually dumped it when the political temperature got too hot.
Eventually Labour became so worried about the popularity of National's One Law For All policy it appointed Trevor Mallard as Race Relations Minister. Mallard went out and declared he was an indigenous white Kiwi from Wainuiomata and in the back room went line by line through departmental budgets killing off some of officialdom's more zealous affirmative action programmes.
So Labour wouldn't really want to play the race card they so detested Brash playing, would they? Surely not the ultra-politically correct Labour Party?
Perhaps not. But being in Opposition does strange things to MPs. If Labour is really struggling for a platform this will be a tempting soap box for some.
Cosgrove looks to be making the running already.
Imagine the irony if Labour turned around and appealed to the Pakeha working class with the message that nearly made Don Brash Prime Minister: One Law For All.
What do you think about what Guyon is discussing? Share your view on the messageboard below.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentGeoff Keey said on 2009-08-14 @ 01:47 NZDT: Report abusive post
Guyon, I was surprised to see you citing the Government's climate change cost estimates so uncritically given the extent to which they have been discredited.
stephen6565 said on 2009-08-13 @ 22:15 NZDT: Report abusive post
Another very poor article. You are part of the fourth estate and should be asking the hard questions of the govt. Making the govt accountable is not just the oppositions job. This whole article is just rubbish 'feelings' centred around your personal political views. Stick to policy and 'news' items.
geekypolitics said on 2009-08-11 @ 19:34 NZDT: Report abusive post
Mr. Espiner has some good advice for Labour especially on the environment, but the idea that Goff should "cuddle" up to Key is appalling. It is always difficult for the opposition to take a stance on matters that are of an international nature, as the reputation of the country as a united entity is at stake. Democrats in the U.S. had the same problem with regards to the Iraq War. I'd hate to see Labour make the same mistake in the name of "solidarity behind the troops."
Andrew Nichols said on 2009-08-11 @ 14:17 NZDT: Report abusive post
"Polls in Britain showed, counter-intuitively, that support for their troop deployment increased even as casualties mounted. " You're flat wrong! Current polling in the UKs major dailies actually shows majority and growing option to Britains involvement in Obams purposeless war. Not that that's ever bothered the govt there, who in time honoured fashion enjoy perpetuating "Britains post WW2 role as the Greeks to the US Empire" (Harold McMillan 1943)
Kereama said on 2009-08-11 @ 13:39 NZDT: Report abusive post
Of course Labour need to find their direction! They lost the election and they lost touch with grassroots NZ - National did too once, and it took them years to get back on track - but they did. The point is, the "road to nowhere" isn't permanent (unless you're Winston Peters... let's hope anyway). While it may be the opposition's role to critique the Government, the media has an obligation to do so also. Let the opposition "find" themselves and focus instead on the ones that count.