Barry Soper: Hone Harawira's comeback deal with Maori Party classic political potpourri

It's your classic political potpourri which makes even Donald Trump look disciplined, although that's probably going a bit far.

The former politician who's was known for going on walkabouts when he was meant to be working, in Australia to publicise aboriginal rights and in Europe, taking off to Paris when he was meant to be in Belgium simply because he hadn't been there before, is now making a comeback having turned his back on Kim Dotcom after the last election.

Hone Harawira is again linking arms with the Maori Party which was set to expel him just six years ago before he walked after calling his colleagues a bunch of dickheads.

One of the leading ones identified by Harawira who went on to form the Mana Party, was Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell who was instrumental in getting him out of the party in the first place. And just to add to the potpourri, the main broker of the deal is the former New Zealand First MP of boxer shorts fame, Tukoroirangi Morgan who's now the president of the Maori Party.

Together they're now all dreaming of taking back the six Maori seats which have drifted back into what used to be their natural, given home with Labour.

The deal which is being hailed as historic by those who've stitched it together goes like this. The flat lining Maori Party won't stand a candidate in Te Tai Tokerau in the far north, paving the way for Hone, while his honchos won't stand in any of the other Maori seats, not that they'd have a bolters show in them anyway.

In reality the Maori Party's been caned for allowing John Key to sign them up as National's insurance policy back in 2008, and even though Maori in terms of Treaty settlements, have got much more out of National than they ever did out of Labour, the ideological stench has been too much for their voters to bear.

Hitching his wagon to the Dotcom ATM machine at the last election left Hone's Tai Tokerau followers feeling short changed and they instead voted for Labour's Kelvin Davis who'd previously been beaten twice by Harawira.

Davis has shown himself as an earnest, effective operator, and shouldn't have too much trouble in warding off a comeback by the unpredictable, firebrand activist.