Claire Trevett: Facing up to Cyclone Hone

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira. Photo / Richard Robinson

After a priest speaking at the Waitangi dawn service told of a dramatic premonition of a tsunami swallowing the Beehive in the month of June, Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples was quick to check with the Prime Minister that a trip to India in that month would go ahead.

But it was a different force of nature that Dr Sharples was forced to deal with more immediately: Hone Harawira.

At Waitangi, the level of discomfiture caused by the ructions was obvious. National was nervous, albeit trying not to show it. Iwi leaders were also nervous, aware that much of the influence they hold and their access to key ministers is under the auspices of the Maori Party's presence.

The Maori Party was nervous, well aware of the punishment Maori voters meted out to NZ First in 2002, when they fled back to Labour in protest.

As the only Maori Party co-leader at Waitangi, it was up to Dr Sharples to signal the way ahead. And after letting Mr Harawira have the running for almost a month since the caucus laid its complaint against him, Dr Sharples was finally in a mood to fight back.

He issued three messages to very different audiences.

The first was the simplest and went to Mr Harawira himself: shape up or get on the waka out.

His second was to the National Party. Rather than distance himself from Mr Key to belie Mr Harawira's suggestions that the co-leaders were too cosy with National, he stuck closer.

He explained that he viewed the relationship with National as a valuable thing, but it was difficult to persuade Maori who instinctively saw government as the enemy.

But the most significant message was reserved for Maori voters. For them, like that priest, Dr Sharples had his own doomsday prophesy.

He warned that Maori parties in the past had risen, only to fall again, and this was the last chance.

He gave them his choice: put your trust in the four MPs, all with strong Maori credentials, and hope for at least incremental progress, or choose the man with the loud voice, and risk losing all.

Yes, it could be scare tactics. But what Dr Sharples will be hoping for is to plant a question into the minds of those voters should Mr Harawira leave the party: Is it worth the risk to follow him?