Matt McCarten: Next Government will need Maori Party

I have always believed a strong, independent Maori Party would be good for New Zealand and race relations.

I think the clearest example of it is that this year's Waitangi Day is likely to be the calmest yet. One of the main reasons is because Maori have a real political alternative since the last election to advance their cause.

Even the Prime Minster feels safe enough to attend and the navy is not only doing their thing at the main marae but is popping down to the bottom marae as well.

The only sour grapes are from Winston Peters and that's only because the local MP and fellow Nga Puhi Hone Harawira has upstaged him by hosting the main event. Peters' claims that the Maori Party has hijacked Waitangi is, of course, nonsense but it does show the power shift in Maori since the Maori Party came a whisker away from being the kingmakers after the last election.

Who would have thought that in a couple of years, the Maori Party would go from a ragtag bunch of street radicals to major power brokers? And not just among Maori - they are increasingly being seen as the party that will determine who will be Prime Minister after the next election.

When the Maori Party was formed, the pampered classes were screeching from their private clubs that their sky was going to fall in, that Maori radicalism was on the rise. The end of the world (at least for them) was nigh.

The wail went up that there must be "one rule for all". Nobody pointed out that any Maori (or the rest of us, for that matter) would have swapped their imaginary privileges for the unearned privileges of the blue rinse brigade any time.

At the time, I had a farmer mate of mine from Taranaki saying that if Maori got their way, then the farm his family had worked for generations would be confiscated from them. After several hours of histrionics and a few too many drinks, he finally confessed that his family's farm was given to his great-great-grandfather as payment for being part of the militia that stole it from local Maori.

The irony of his position was obviously lost on him in his inebriated state. But the uneasiness of many 'mainstream' New Zealanders was real.

Don Brash's speeches certainly rallied Pakeha fears and he even dumped his only Maori MP Georgina Te Heu Heu when she didn't show enough enthusiasm for his strategy.

But once the Maori Party won a few seats, the opportunists who masterminded the anti-Maori campaign quickly U-turned.

The post-election fawning by National was sickening and unprincipled, of course. But when power is at stake, it seems no humiliation is too much.

I spoke to a National Party strategist at the time who said that the Nats had finally got into their heads that if they ever hoped to govern, then they needed Maori.

You'll notice that since the election, we haven't heard a peep from Brash or Gerry Brownlee about Maori privilege. The lame speech from Brash at Orewa this year was pathetic.

It's just not the same, is it? A good annual Maori-bashing speech before Waitangi was something the whole country looked forward to in recent years.

This new love for Maori has now infected Act as well. Rodney Hide is swooning over how he "was looking forward to working with the Maori Party" and its four MPs were "smart and hard working". It seems the right wing parties have finally learned to count and want to make new friends.

As one Maori MP said to me: "National and Act are only sucking up to us because they need us but it stops them from attacking our people for electoral gain. That in itself is positive for Maori."

The Maori Party are on track to win all seven Maori seats at the next election. If they succeed, no one can govern without them. That means no party with an overt racist agenda will rule. Not a bad thing, I'd say.

If Waitangi goes well this weekend, most New Zealanders will breathe a sigh of relief. Who knows, the Maori Party may even pick up a few Pakeha votes next time.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY