A more mellow Henare without the sunglasses

By ANNE BESTON

Tau Henare seems laid back these days but it would be a mistake to assume that all the swagger and bravado have disappeared.

Sitting on the living-room couch of his sprawling 1950s weatherboard home, the former Maori Affairs Minister at first denies he has changed. But on reflection, maybe a bit.

He does not get as angry these days, does not fly off the handle as he used to. It is bringing up five children between 8 and 18, watching them grow and struggle with their own daily pressures, that has meant his own interests sometimes get put aside.

At 41, gone are the wraparound Dirty Dog glasses, the media attention and a good deal of hair. Since being dumped by Te Tai Tokerau voters in 1999, the former New Zealand First deputy leader has been working for the Kohanga Reo National Trust, troubleshooting for the organisation by making sure that each centre is licensed and well run.

He has enjoyed the job, plus a stint on Newstalk ZB radio and another slot on a Maori radio station. But he threw the last one in.

"Not to put down Maori radio and it's not that you're sick of being Maori, but you're sick of being marginalised, only having a Maori point of view. I've got a view on everything."

As National's Te Atatu candidate, he can probably hope at best to make a dent in the unassailable 9262-vote majority of Labour MP Chris Carter.

"I'm going to give it a good bash," Mr Henare says. "People have a choice between me and the other fella, the quiet one who's planted a few trees around the place and that's about it."

If there is one issue he would like to be elected on it is stopping the controversial siting of a marae on the sprawling coastal parkland bordering the upper Waitemata Harbour.

"I don't mind people wanting to put up a marae if they want to but why the hell should it be on a place that was set aside for a people's park?"

Mr Henare says Labour is stuck in a handout mentality and the money spent on welfare benefits would be better spent on education. He does not believe the Treaty of Waitangi process will be the "economic delivery wagon" many think it will be.

And if he does not win on Saturday, it is "back to work on Monday".

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