No sympathy for Key from minor parties

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Wed, 16 Nov 2011 9:29p.m.

Four of the five minor party leaders questioned said the tape should be made public

Four of the five minor party leaders questioned said the tape should be made public

Minor party leaders don't have any sympathy for Prime Minister John Key as he struggles to deal with the teapot tape scandal.

In a live TV debate on Wednesday night four out of five thought the tape should be published and ACT leader Don Brash, who features in it, said he didn't care what was said about him or what happened to it.

Watch the video for Ali Ikram's take on the debate

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and United Future's Peter Dunne said the meeting between Mr Key and and ACT's Epsom candidate last Friday was a media stunt anyway.

Mr Peters - who knows what's on the tape - said there was a plot to dump Dr Brash from the ACT leadership and hinted that a post-election job for him outside politics was discussed.

The 90-minute debate ranged across everything from the economy to the electoral system and threw up some sharp differences.

The Maori Party's Tariana Turia and Mana's Hone Harawira both think racism is entrenched in New Zealand.

Mr Harawira said poor people lived in slavery and Ms Turia believes Maori have been poverty-stricken ever since their land was stolen.

They both want a financial transactions tax which they say would raise $22 billion a year at 1 percent and solve the country's problems.

None of the others agreed on any of those points, but they did acknowledged Maori were generally worse off and the problem should be tackled.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman championed the environment and said he had a plan to bring 100,000 children out of poverty, Mr Peters ran his line that New Zealand was dividing into separate Maori and Pakeha nations, and Dr Brash said cutting government spending was the most important issue.

Dr Brash and Mr Dunne say they will definitely go into coalition with National after the election, while Dr Norman says the Greens prefer Labour but can work with National on some issues.

Mr Peters and Mr Harawira won't have anything to do with either of the main parties and Mrs Turia kept the Maori Party's options open.

NZN

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Comments

17 Nov 2011 05:45p.m.

Anna Sunter wrote:

What a great post from Elizabeth Wilson!! Thank you for that. It's good to see someone talking sense for a change instead of being dragged into the arguments of one side or the other ad infinitum :)

17 Nov 2011 03:55p.m.

Wills wrote:

The three Maori candidates Hone, Winston and Tariana won that debate by a mile. The crowds positive reaction to their comments proved that. Compare it to the collective groan they gave Don Brash as soon as he brought up the Maori seats. lol

17 Nov 2011 02:57p.m.

Matheson wrote:

to address the milieu of misplaced and strangely projective racism that is abound on this thread i will make a few bulletpoints. - Maori centred policy is not separatist merely because it proposes alternative framework for generating duties from values -Moriori -war- with Maori was explicit, colonialism is inherently insidious and corrodes culture through subsumption not destruction -what many of you see as "hate" of pakeha and so on is nonsense and betrays your eurocentric exceptionalism; racist policy and policy based on recognition of race as valid, are two vastly different concepts -Anyone wanting to defend a position that situates Maori at the bottom of the social strata due to their intrinsic shortcomings is an idiot; structural marginalization is endemic in liberal-democratic-capitalist society and is not unique to the plight of Maori -Maori separatism is a phrase bandied about by intellectually vacant pseudo-scholarship hicks to disguise what is a total disconnect with the social organic process and its varieties of adjustable value-systems that all rely on constructed realities

17 Nov 2011 07:32a.m.

Grant wrote:

I am sick of the race card being played. I don't admit to my Maori heritage. My girlfriend unfortunately is pure "Pakeha". Despite associating with "Maoris" and their culture all her young life, she has been subjected to unrelenting racism by "Maori" academics and artists for her current interest in documenting Maori art.
Part Maoris are not "Maoris". It's time part Maori's got a life and stopped playing the race card to cover their greed. I look at the poor White, Islander and Chinese people quietly struggling to survive without the ability to play on white guilt for handouts and I know who the real racists are.

17 Nov 2011 07:17a.m.

Mike wrote:

The typical response of the 1800's for the british was to send in the redcoats and kill any resistance. That didn't happen in NZ as Govenor Grey did more for Maori than any of the Maori in that leaders debate.

The treaty has been re-interpreted using interpretation of the 20th century to suit parties wanting to paint the victim complex and get billions from the NZ tax payers today. Lets take Hone who apart from cutting down a flag pole did his neighborly visit to Bay-of-plenty Maori in the day - he murdered a few hundred of them and that was okay because he was conducting his customary title. He also visited the Chatams and murdered almost everyone on the island - customary title again. The there was someones mother had her 'Kill a White' statement to Maori back in the 1980's

The treaty was a way to stop excesses on both sides. Settlers were stopped from buying land from Maori, and they had already pruchased NZ 3x over from various Maori and the settlers were considering this beyond a joke. The treaty gave Maori the rights of british subjects and ability to own land, plus the crown took over all land transactions. Read law of the day, and the treaty and you can see what Grey was aiming for. Take a look at what the british did everywhere but NZ and you can see Maori got of lightly with the british compared to other natives in other countries - so Grey did much to protect Maori. Normally it was send in the redcoats and crush the oppostion and not care about any civilians dead in the action.

I'm sick of the apartied attitudes by some who want Maori to be given everything on a basis of race. Until everyone is treated equally it will only create ill-feelings. We need to get rid of anything that is racist like the Maori seats, or positions garanteed due to someones race. we have over 300 pieces of NZ law giving Maori different handling than non-Maori which is completely racist and apartied.

17 Nov 2011 03:51a.m.

Elizabeth Wilson wrote:

The lot of them are idiots. Im a Maori living and working in Australia. Why can't our 2 nations get on?. What is the problem.??. Just because our skin color is different does that make the Pakeha better then the Maori or the other way around. NO IT DOES NOT. New Zealand is a small country. The people usually get on very well but as soon as these so called leaders.... both Maori and Pakeha open their racist mouths, the whole country goes into an uproar. These people whether they be Maori, pakeha or who ever are there because they were voted in by us to represent us in a respectful and appropiate manner. Instead all we get is a bunch of bloody crooked money hungry cowboys fighting and squabbling amongst themselves, which in turn spills over into the public arena and get blown sky high thru the hyped up reports by our media coverage, then all we get is...He said....she said....they said....the man in the goddamn moon said,.....and at the end of the day, nothing is solved, or agreed on ....or disagreed on, then they all go and hide from us and then by that time, its Xmas holidays and they all have a good time at our expence, then the next year ........Round 2 Replay. Dayum.....Life is short. There should be no tolerance for racism. Everyone are the same. Color has nothing to do with it.....The key to all this crap, is bloody greed. The land belongs to no one. These places on Mother Earth were put there for evryones use. Whats wrong with sharing????. There is enough to go around evry man woman and child, and it does not matter what color we are. INFACT, THERE IS ENOUGH LAND, FOOD, WATER, IN EVRY COUNTRY ON MOTHER EARTH TO SUSTAIN EVERY LIVING CREATURE. So why are 99% of our world population up in arms about our 1% so called Leaders??? One word folks. "GREED".

17 Nov 2011 02:46a.m.

Wayne wrote:

The Tea Pot tape incident has to be one of the biggest time wasters. It is hard to believe that NZ press not to mention politics, has to stoop all the way to the gutter for such trashy news. Stop wasting the countries time and get on with some real reporting. Why would anyone want to go public, it seems only the press really care as they think they can milk it for all it's worth. Does anyone really care if it's about Brash being dumped? If the tape was to be made public, then what's stopping anyone and everyone from doing much the same thing against the press. Actually that would be so darn funny. Recording press management and staff here there and everywhere then put it on-line on an off shore server. I wonder what secrets they have lol. As for the debate, lucky for me, I missed it, one has the feeling that this years election is being run from the gutter with promises aimed to entice the little people to evoke change. In the current global situation, and in a nation as supposedly civilised and ours, it is probably a case of staying with the devil you think you know, rather than those offering the impossible. As for Maori vs the rest of us: NZ needs a one country one people, policy. If you seek special or VIP treatment get a job and earn it like the rest of us. Increase the tax on alcohol, so you basically have to be employed to buy it. hmm 600+ characters left A security guard in our town had to let a tagger (graffiti) go last night as police couldn't respond in time. According the guard, if he tried to detain the person caught in the act, he could be charged with assault? So food for thought, why not give security personnel the power to arrest and or detain? Especially in small towns. Could they not be deputized as auxiliary police for when the police are either unable to attend or are off duty? Would certainly help clean up crime. Use small towns as test zones for 12 or 24 months. Must help save something be it tax dollars, property or personal damage etc.

17 Nov 2011 12:28a.m.

Greg wrote:

That's not a good look for those vying to be PM not to have sympathy for the victim of a crime. Drop it 3 news, it's not a story.

17 Nov 2011 12:04a.m.

Simon wrote:

Jono Jono Jono. I think you are forgetting the Maori's stole this country from the Moriori's, whilst eating them. Where is the Moriori compensation? Or do you now have a problem with "justice" and people getting what they deserve?

16 Nov 2011 11:57p.m.

Peter wrote:

@ Jono. I agree with what Warren has said about the debate. Your brain must be screwed with drugs though as I don't see where he said anything about justifying any actions of the British. He was repeating the separatism and racialist comments made by Turia. Some of you people are really making it hard for your race to succeed by continuing with this vile hatred of anything or anyone Pakeha. I personally believe it will eventually destroy the Maori race. If you dislike us that much then maybe it's also time you's started to fund your own lives. ie fund your own social welfare, create your own employment, fund the building of your own state houses, schools, hotels etc. See what Warren was getting at Jono! Do you really want to go down the separatist path. Depending on your literacy and intellect Jono, Have a good look at what has happened in South Africa and see if it's what you really want.