John Armstrong: Maori Party flouting fundamental law of politics

Hone Harawira will remain with the Maori Party. Photo / Mark Mitchell

No one is going to accuse the Maori Party of rushing to judgment in Hone Harawira's case.

Quite the opposite. It has taken the party a full month to reach a final decision on the errant MP's future following his side-trip to Paris and his subsequent "white motherf ***ers" email.

The culmination of four weeks of the party bleeding all over the media was Harawira making another apology - one which, by virtue of being directed at Maoridom in general and his caucus colleagues in particular, was more the genuine article than his earlier stab at penitence.

But that's as far as the punishment goes. He's back inside the tent despite the leadership's misconceived attempt to have him walk away from the party. He gets to spend what's left of the parliamentary year in his Te Tai Tokerau electorate. Christmas has come early in the Harawira household.

Dealing with a nonconformist of his proportions would test any political party. But the Maori Party has made a complete hash of it.

Put that down to inexperience, a lack of established procedures for maintaining discipline, plus being a small party constantly distracted by other priorities - points made by co-leader Pita Sharples. However, he also insisted the party had handled the Harawira problem "our way". The question is whether in choosing "our way", the Maori Party can flout a fundamental law of politics, namely that disunity both personnel-wise and policy-wise is death.

Prior to Harawira doing his Paris thing, the party had navigated its passage through its first year as National's support partner in government with only relatively minor scrapes. But in the weeks since, that sure-footedness has been absent.

The party's shifting stance on climate change has also been a shambles. In backing National's emissions trading scheme, the Maori Party ended up endorsing something much weaker than the previous Labour Government's version which the Maori Party was unable to support because it wasn't tough enough. Figure that one out.

True, the Maori Party did extract concessions from National in exchange for backing the current Government's scheme. However, the party's MPs were completely outmanoeuvred by Labour which shifted attention away from the concessions designed to help poor Maori to the ones seen as unduly benefiting so-called Maori elites.

The one compensation for the Maori Party is that the arguments over emissions trading are so complex, few voters will have taken note of the rout.

Far easier to follow - although equally difficult to comprehend - was the leadership's attempt to persuade Harawira to walk from the party.

He was never going to quit the party over something of such little practical consequence. He is far more likely to quit on a point of principle over some Government measure he finds untenable. That is the nub of it. The Maori Party represents many voters for whom National Party doctrine is anathema.

Harawira's enforced absence from Parliament during last week's debate and vote on National's emissions trading scheme may have been a blessing in disguise. But his absence and the debate itself brought that ongoing tension with National into sharp relief, just as Labour sending troops to Afghanistan split the Alliance in 2002. The difference is that this month's mayhem in the Maori Party occurred far earlier in the electoral cycle than was the case with the Alliance.

That should give the Prime Minister pause for thought. National's relations with the Maori Party may be tickety-boo. Work continues apace on two matters of vital concern to the Maori Party - replacing the current foreshore and seabed law and Tariana Turia's whanau ora scheme devolving provision of social services to Maori.

But with Labour busy questioning what the Maori Party has actually delivered so far, Turia and Sharples desperately need some policy trophies to thrust in Labour's face - and they need them soon.