KEY POINTS:
Anyone who has a passing acquaintance with Maori Party president Whatarangi Winiata will know what a gentle giant of a man he is.
So last night when he issued a press statement saying he was "troubled" by advice that "a Green politician" had been giving yesterday, you can guarantee that that is equivalent to anybody else being "livid" or "horrified."
He did not name his target but it was Green MP Metiria Turei who, speaking on Willie Jackson's Radio Waatea,suggested that Maori Party supporters split their vote [Electorate vote for the Maori Party and Party vote for the Greens] otherwise it would be wasted.
According to a Waatea press statement this is what she said: "To use your vote, the most practical way to get the best pro-Maori support Parliament is to split it and to make sure that we have the Party Vote because otherwise it will be wasted."
Professor Winiata's statement ends with more understatement: "In the interests of inclusivity and cross-cultural nation building, we would humbly suggest that two votes for the Maori Party be seen to be in the interests of the country."
What others might say is "keep you sticky mitts off our Party votes, 'mates.' "
It was second statement in a week from the the Maori Party against a Green MP. Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia issued a similar statement on Tuesday aimed at Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons who similarly suggested at the weekend that a split vote was perfectly logical.
It has been an important development in what has been a cosy relationship between the Greens and the Maori Party. It might not be war, but the Maori Party is justifiably peeved that the Greens are courting the Party vote of Maori Party supporters.
New Zealand First and others may have done it last election - urged Maori to vote "strategically" - but they have not claimed to be friends of the Maori Party. The Greens have. Turei herself announced earlier in the year she would not stand in a Maori seat, having stood in the southern Te Tai Tonga last election. It decided to go after the Party Vote.
The Maori Party mistakenly believed that the Green Party was not standing in any of the Maori electorates. That has been clarified. It will stand in the Maori seats but not high-profile candidates and it will campaign for the Party Vote, not the Electorate vote. Fitzsimons said she was sorry if there had been a misunderstanding.
The Greens' logic is that the Maori Party will not, at least not at this election, get as much support in the Party Vote seat entitlement as they will win in electorates seats [maximum seven]- so you might as well give your party vote to a pro-Maori party like the Greens, for which every party vote will count.
It is a logic that says the Maori Party should have no ambition beyond the numbers it can gain in electorates won on the ground. At the very least it is a logic that says that ambition should be put on hold for another election. It is a logic that pits Greens pragmatic self-interest against the Maori Party's foundation principle of being an independent party.
That is not very far from the concerns that United Future leader Peter Dunne has about an "overhang" created by the Maori Party, where the deficit between its electorate wins and its entitlement from a smaller Party Vote could add to the 120 MPs.
Never mind that United Future, Jim Anderton's Progressives and Rodney Hide's Act's regularly create overhangs in current polling.
never mind that the law expressly allows for overhangs. When it might be created the Maori Party as opposed to three micro-parties, it is apparently a problem.
The best way to overcome the "problem" is for the Maori Party to lift its Party vote.
