Turia would like separate Maori house in Parliament

1.00pm

Sacked minister Tariana Turia says she would like to see a dual Parliament with a separate House for Maori.

Mrs Turia announced on Friday she was resigning from Parliament over the foreshore and seabed issue.

She said she would resign from Parliament on May 17 and seek a fresh mandate as an independent MP for the Te Tai Hauauru electorate before looking to form a new Maori party.

Speaking on National Radio this morning she said she thought it could be possible to have a separate House for Maori in Parliament in the future to allow "our people to be more self determining".

"I think that's achievable, that's what I think we could move towards very quickly if there was a will within New Zealand.

"I would be happy with that because ... in the Labour Party you have policy that's put in place and Maori people have to fit into that policy.

"This party...will focus on Maori rights, Maori self-determination, and it will be sitting within its own cultural paradigm -- not within someone else's."

She also said dual leadership is her preference for the new party, and it could work with National.

Leading figures such as Pita Sharples and Willie Jackson have touted her as an obvious leader of such a party, but Mrs Turia said she had had no discussions about her leading the party.

She felt there were more important things to tend to first.

Setting up a party infrastructure and devising policy came before deciding who would lead it, she said.

She was prepared to play a key role, saying she favoured the dual leadership model used by the Green Party over having a single leader.

Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons are co-leaders of the Green Party.

Mrs Turia is all but certain to return to Parliament as Labour has indicated it will not fight her in a by-election.

National, ACT, New Zealand First, the Green Party and United Future have all said it is up to their ruling councils to decide whether to contest a by-election, but none is likely to stand.

Mrs Turia was disappointed with Labour, saying it had long enjoyed the trust of the Maori people.

It was a signal Maori no longer mattered to Labour, she said.

Despite their differences, Mrs Turia still felt Prime Minister Helen Clark was "the best prime minister this country has ever had".

But she did not rule out any new party working with National, which hit out at preferential treatment for Maori in a landmark speech by leader Don Brash in January.

Mrs Turia was confident that a new Maori party would have a political future.

"The biggest thing about (the foreshore and seabed issue) and a party that is coming into being is that it has brought people together," she said.

"We're looking at unity of thought, unity of purpose. If we are able to maintain that then I feel very, very confident that a Maori party will do well."

Maori people were "totally committed" to the new movement, Mrs Turia said.

While Maori were "angry and hurt" at the speech by Dr Brash "in the end they have also said to me that they can work with anybody".

"National have done some good things in the past, they started the kohanga reo movement, all of the health and social services that are in place right now began under the National government.

"Of course, it is National who put in place the Resource Management Act which gave our people a greater say working alongside of councils."

Miss Clark told NewstalkZB that there had been "clear duplicity on about three occasions", by Mrs Turia.

"We are now told that when she announced she was going to abstain in February she never meant to abstain at all, that was just a ruse to hang on, dragging the debate out within the Labour Party Maori caucus," she said.

"On April 5, I told her it was not going to be possible to hold on to her job if she crossed the floor, she told me that evening she would be going from Parliament and causing a by-election.

"Not withstanding that, she went the next day to the Labour Party caucus and argued for more time because she said she hadn't read the bill.

"Then this last week when confronted she would not confirm what she had said on a radio station earlier in the day -- that she was going to cross the floor, and march in the hikoi."

Miss Clark did not expect Tainui MP Nanaia Mahuta to resign and join the Maori party

"I have been told very directly by Nanaia...that she doesn't see a single issue as something that a Maori Party should form around."

While there was a lot of excitement around the Turia camp as "the daily demonstrations" make their way to Parliament, "let's see what happens after that", Miss Clark said.

Maori protest over the foreshore and seabed, and calls for a new Maori party were not reflected in polls of Maori opinion, she said.

"You do see the same old faces who are basically speaking -- the sovereignty movement, the wreckers like (Annette) Sykes, (Ken) Mair, the Harawiras -- and so on.

"It seems to me that what has been a relatively small group has got an enormous amount of publicity."

Mrs Turia was exhibiting an astonishing lack of perspective, given all the good Labour had done for Maori, she said.

"Mrs Turia has been happy to be in there taking part of the credit for that, and now apparently it comes to nothing," she said.

"To spend all this time on what is a pretty theoretical and abstract debate just amazes me."

After losing all the Maori seats in 1996, Labour knew support was not locked in stone, she said.

Labour had worked to benefit all people in the country, and Maori had seen huge advances under Labour

"I've got to look at the longer term and at what holds New Zealand together.

"There are plenty of wreckers out there...but somebody has to stand up for a vision of this country where we live alongside each other and respect each other."

The by-election will cost the taxpayer more than $350,000 to stage.

Maori caucus chairman Mita Ririnui said yesterday Mrs Turia had not told the Maori caucus of her decision.

He said her decision was "disappointing" and placed extra pressure on the rest of the caucus.

Chief Electoral Officer David Henry told NZPA it would cost more to hold a by-election in the enormous Maori electorate -- that ran from Tawa (just north of Wellington) to Tokoroa and encompassed the whole of the Taranaki and Whanganui regions -- than in a general seat covering a smaller area.

If Mrs Turia's was the only name on the ballot paper, she would be declared elected, he said.

- NZPA