Swing to Maori Party in North

By RUTH BERRY, political reporter

As the battle for the hearts and minds of Maori voters intensifies, the chairman of the Ngapuhi runanga says there is an unprecedented swing in support for the Maori Party in Te Tai Tokerau.

The besieged Te Tai Tokerau MP Dover Samuels has hit back, claiming once the emotion over the foreshore issue settles the electorate will "see sense".

And his colleague, Tamaki Makaurau MP John Tamihere, has suggested the fight will get rough, warning Labour will scrutinise the new party, subjecting candidates to "due diligence" tests of their background and integrity.

While some iwi organisations have begun declaring their official support for the fledgling party, the Ngapuhi chairman, Sonny Tau, said the runanga, representing the largest Maori population in the country, would never officially back a political party.

"We have to work with whatever party is in power."

But he said it was clear "support for the Maori Party is quite heightened at this point".

Mr Tau first believed interest in the party was focused on the foreshore.

"But I think the support is now starting to cut deeper than the one issue. I think the standing Maori representatives need to be concerned."

Potential Maori Party candidate for the electorate and its present organiser Hone Harawira agrees and believes Mr Samuels is losing bedrock Labour supporters by the day.

"You have to wonder whether Labour, Dover, has much of a base left."

Mr Samuels, who has scotched rumours he will not stand again, said the Maori Party had misled and misinformed Maori.

"If the Maori Party was in Parliament, the foreshore would not have been vested in Maori, despite all this raindancing and haka."

A vote for the Maori Party would effectively be a vote for National and for the abolition of the Maori seats, he claimed.