Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Turia let opportunity to stand up for poor vanish

By Jay Kuten
Whanganui Chronicle·
23 Jul, 2013 08:36 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

I've often admired the political skills of Tariana Turia and often, too, her stance on issues.

It's customary in a valedictory, when a respected leader departs, to speak only of the good they have done and to intone how much they will be missed. I'd go along with such conventions in the case of an average politician, but it would be disrespectful in the largest sense if I were to pretend I have no disagreements with her or that her record is only one of achievement.

On the positive side of the ledger is her passion as a tireless campaigner for the interests of Maori, a strength tempered by a moderate and disarming demeanour. I could well understand her anger and disappointment with Helen Clark over the foreshore and seabed legislation; an unnecessary act of pure provocation on Labour's part.

At the time, Mrs Turia expressed her disagreement by the principled stand of giving up her junior ministerial position. Later, we know, she severed ties with Labour and formed the Maori Party.

There was a good argument for stepping away from Labour which had begun to take the Maori vote for granted - or so it was being perceived. Independence is one thing. It's the power to help form a government. Joining with National was quite another and, in my opinion, a step too far. On balance National has gotten the better of the deal.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

While Mrs Turia's project, Whanau Ora, is a basically good idea - the family is at the root of health, good and ill - its execution has yet to be completed and, given National's fiscal ideology, may never be fully implemented.

Likewise, the issue of poverty, especially child poverty, is one Mrs Turia has championed. Again the party in power, National, has given mere lip service towards serious work on the issue. The offered solutions relying on corporate largesse turn out to be weak tea indeed. Like the famous American ad, we can ask, plaintively, "Where's the beef?"

In many ways, John Key and National have shown little meaningful interest in the plight of the poor, among whom Maori are over-represented.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Even more, Mrs Turia and Pita Sharples have had to stand by and swallow hard as Key's Government, of which they form a part, continues its course of selling off our assets; selling back the taxpayer-owned power companies to 5 per cent of those same taxpayers and to large institutional investors from overseas.

If the concept of tangata whenua were to have real meaning, the Maori Party ought to have left government in protest. The court actions, the protest marches, the petitions were important in making clear that an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders were opposed.

Walking out of government might have toppled the whole house of cards. Sometimes a strong minority dissent may turn the tide. It was a great opportunity for Mrs Turia to stand on principle and her failure to do so is inexplicable. Worse, it gave fodder to her critics to claim that, in the end, she put self-interest above the interests of Maori.

I don't hold that view, but I do wish she had been willing to sacrifice her position for the benefit of the whole country. That would have been a fitting final act of statesmanship.

Ultimately, Mrs Turia, like many Maori leaders before her, missed the great opportunity, afforded by her position, to reach beyond the parochial. To argue strongly that not only is her concern the welfare and well-being of Maori but indeed the advancement of the interests of all the disadvantaged, be they poor whites or poor immigrants of whatever hue.

More than that was to make the case that social and economic justice is in the interest of the whole country, rich and poor alike. That kind of tide, if enacted by the political process, must lift all the boats. In its absence a lot of folks - even middle-class and richer folks - will see their boats stuck in the shallows.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

08 Jul 10:48 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

08 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

08 Jul 05:01 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

Earthquakes every six to seven minutes detected under Mt Ruapehu

08 Jul 10:48 PM

Volcanic tremor remains low; Mt Ruapehu is at Volcanic Alert Level 1.

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

'Serious shortcomings' in pilot academy management and systems - authority

08 Jul 06:00 PM
Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

Health NZ stops funds for Fit for Surgery programme

08 Jul 05:01 PM
'The truth will come out': Scott Guy's parents speak 15 years after unsolved murder

'The truth will come out': Scott Guy's parents speak 15 years after unsolved murder

08 Jul 09:03 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP