Hone Harawira. Photo / Mark Mitchell
By comparison with other parties, the Maori Party is running its election campaign on a shoestring, with campaign manager Hone Harawira hitch-hiking around the north to deliver his message.
During the last election, the Maori Party revealed it had been offered $250,000 to line up with Labour, but
this time around the amounts are smaller. The largest donation it has had so far is $70,000 from businesswoman Susan Cullen, who is the daughter of former Te Wananga o Aotearoa head Rongo Wetere.
Instead, the party is relying on old-fashioned electioneering to speak to the people, press-ganging all seven Maori Party candidates into door-knocking.
"We don't have a great big union movement working for us like Labour does," says party co-leader Tariana Turia. "So we have to rely on people who are absolutely committed. We've got 23,000 - that's a big group to call on."
She says Harawira is a bit of a "wild boy" who doesn't take political prisoners. But he has a "charming" streak which is on display during the party's roadshows, she says.
Iwi may have benefited from Treaty of Waitangi settlements but they don't donate to the party, Turia says.
This means the party doesn't have much cash to spray about beyond a few billboards and pamphlets. But there will be a newspaper advertising push in the last week of the campaign.
The party's main objective is to shove New Zealand First out of its accustomed kingmaker role and be "the player" at the election. Harawira tells voters that only the Maori Party can deliver self-determination for Maori.
