Maori Party small but new force in Parliament

Parliament has a small, but militant new force: like the SAS it is made up primarily of brown faces, operates below the mainstream radar and will use tactics repugnant to some.

It is the Maori Party - and yesterday it arrived, not en masse but in potent force.

President Whatarangi Winiata is warning that the party will have difficulty working with either National or Labour and would rather return the country to the polls in coming months than compromise its principles.

"It may be better to go back to the electorate and have another vote," he said. "People may say it's holding the nation to ransom. That doesn't concern me. The nation gave away the foreshore and seabed."

At Whangaehu Marae, near Wanganui last night, co-leader Tariana Turia celebrated a rout. In Auckland, co-leader Pita Sharples humbly thanked his supporters. The story was the same for former radical Hone Harawira in the north, and education consultant Te Ururoa Flavell in Bay of Plenty.

An excited Tariana Turia said she was looking forward to having three other Maori Party colleagues in Parliament and was last night talking of coalition deals.

Both National leader Don Brash and Prime Minister Helen Clark had checked they had Ms Turia's cellphone number in the days before the election and last night she was expecting a call to open "negotiations".

Ms Turia, who held her seat of Te Tai Hauauru, said she would take any phone calls then take the proposed deals back to Maori Party supporters to discuss who to support. Support would be based on whose policies would offer the most to Maori.

Ms Turia, who broke from Labour to form the Maori Party over its foreshore and seabed legislation, was watching results at her home marae with about 600 supporters. She said: " For a political party formed just 15 months ago, I think we've done really well."

She had spoken to fellow co-leader Pita Sharples. "He was very excited but quite nervous. We are looking forward to getting into Parliament and getting to work for the Maori people."

It is the second time in a decade most of the Maori electorates have abandoned Labour. The big parties see them as radical, separatist, racist, dangerous even. Says new Labour MP Shane Jones: "We know how Tau Henare and his lot got tossed out: I think any extremism coming from the Maori Party MPs will only deepen anxiety among Pakeha, without fulfilling the expectations of Maori."

On Thursday, the Maori Party accused Labour of vandalising its billboards; Labour's John Tamihere responded by saying Pita Sharples' team had kidnapped a 16-year old campaign worker and held him for seven hours.

However, the Maori Party believes it offers a way forward to unify New Zealand in the face of perceived attacks from Brash, Clark and Peters. Today, the new MPs will be welcomed back on to Sharples' West Auckland marae where it all began last year. The MPs and Professor Winiata will discuss post-election negotiations.

A deal with National is only an option if Don Brash backs away from his plan to abolish the Maori electorates. Those electorates, along with embedding the Treaty in the constitution and the foreshore and seabed, are the closest thing the Maori Party has to non-negotiable bottom lines.

Many supporters will be equally unhappy if the Maori Party goes into coalition with Labour, the party they blame for confiscating their foreshore rights.

"It is awful that Labour should be a choice at all, but we'll let the people decide," said Winiata.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY, additional reporting by Ainsley Thomson