Tireless Turia looks to future

LISTENER: MP Tariana Turia was a bit tired on Tuesday, having worked 16 hours the day before. Photo/Bevan Conley

After 18 years in Parliament Tariana Turia feels it's time to leave - but she wants the work she has begun to carry on.

"You reach a time in Parliament when you know that it's time to go. Te Tai Hauauru has an outstanding candidate. It's not sensible to stay on," she said.

The Te Tai Hauauru MP and co-leader of the Maori Party made her valedictory speech on July 24, to a packed gallery. But she carries on her ministerial duties until new ministers are appointed and hopes to be involved in whatever negotiations take place when a government is formed after the September 20 election.

Mrs Turia is the Minister for Whanau Ora and the Minister for Disability Issues. She's also the Associate Minister of Health, Housing, Social Development and Tertiary Education, and she's on the Parliamentary Privileges Committee.

During the next few weeks she'll carry on with that work. She'll also help the seven Maori Party candidates with their campaigns - but mainly when she's in their electorates for other work.

She will continue to be the party's female co-leader until a new one is chosen at its post-election annual meeting. There are three women contesting Maori seats who could want her position if they are elected.

Politics can be tiring. Mrs Turia is 70 years old and said she worked 16 hours on Monday.

"I got home at midnight and I had left home at 7.40 in the morning."

She was a bit tired the next day, while at Ruaka Marae for the signing of the Whanganui River deed of settlement. But she said she was not tired overall. Asked which parts of her political work she wanted to carry on, she said "All of it."

She singled out work in the housing area that should continue with more resources, and more progress with Whanau Ora.

Her disability portfolio has influenced her profoundly, and she wants to see the Enabling Good Lives initiative expand throughout the country and across the disability sector. Trade training for Maori and Pasifika people was another priority, as were well-resourced Pasifika health collectives.

Whatever work Mrs Turia does in the next few years will be from her home in Wanganui, she said. She's not likely to be idle.

"I'm quite keen to be actively involved where I can be, and I will be.

"I don't imagine I will be sitting at home knitting."