Tariana Turia: Tika over politics of teka

My husband George has always sworn I'd be a hopeless poker player. Apparently, I have one of those faces wherein everyone could read my cards without me uttering a word.

I guess that's why I have never been able to abide by the politics of desperation and deceit, known to some of our whanau as the "politics of teka" (the lying tongue).

We had the classic example last week in Parliament, with politicians from both Labour and National swearing that changing the Police Act to enable the storage of the fingerprints and photographs of our young people was nothing more than a technicality.

But what they weren't "fessing up to" was that the criteria by which these "identifying particulars" can now be legally taken include not only appearances in front of the Youth Court, but also under the Child, Youth and Families Act. So in practice, what this will mean is that one of our rangatahi may be granted pardon by a judge, and recommended to take up a parenting programme, a drug and alcohol course, or attend a mentoring project. Despite being discharged by the court, their fingerprints and photos will be retained by the police, just because they can.

In the lead-up to the elections, we've been watching other examples of the politics of teka panned out in the policy releases of Labour and Mana.

They say imitation is the finest form of flattery. If so, I guess I should be proud to see both Labour and Mana taking up our policy introduced two years ago by Rahui Katene in her private member's bill to remove GST from healthy food. But when I see other policies being rolled out by Mana which are a direct copy of ours, including our policy on a financial transaction tax (now renamed the Hone Heke Tax) and the Commissioner on the Treaty of Waitangi, I do wonder when the original source will ever be attributed.

For years, Labour tried to fool our people that our salvation lay in placing their faith in the Labour brand. In the process, we stopped looking to what we could do for ourselves and waited for our fortunes to turn. But like Lotto numbers, the pathway to prosperity can never be predicted on a basis of luck alone.

The truth is that the politics of teka cannot overthrow the politics of tika - that which is right.

We have one clear difference distinguishing us from all other parties. The Maori Party is tikanga driven. Kaupapa and tikanga Maori guide our every move. And so we are a movement of the people, which asks only that our people place their faith in their own solutions. Our job is to do what we can, to support the aspirations of whanau to be the best that they can be.

We believe we are the best physicians, the first educators, the source of our own answers. We have always been hunters and gatherers; we have been navigators and explorers; we have been there before; we can go there again.

One of the finest tributes shared in the tangi for Sir Paul Reeves was from the Anglican Archbishop of New Zealand, David Moxon. In his eulogy, Bishop Moxon left an inspiring message about that which is tika. He spoke of Sir Paul as a "hope-peddler, a joy-bringer, a courage-bearer, someone who stands alongside people and searches for common ground".

We must believe in our collective potential to move forward, fuelled by our own people power. Kei a koe te tikanga.