Ae Marika! | 3 June 2011 | Hone Harawira

This last week has been hectic to say the least.

On my last paid day as an MP I flew down to Christchurch to talk to Maori student leaders keen to know what was happening with MANA. They’d heard about my meeting at Auckland University the previous week that got all the publicity, and they were keen to hear what MANA had in mind for rangatahi. I suggested they build a rangatahi wing in MANA, and challenged them to bring in enough votes to choose their own MP. They loved the idea, and invited me to do a national tour after the by-election to talk about it with the Maori student body.

Last Wednesday I did the cooking slot on the Morning Show so with some chicken pieces, rice, water and soya sauce, I cooked a simple tasty meal that will feed a family of six for $25. Life is tough for everyone at the moment, so good cheap healthy meals are a must.

They held a fundraiser for me down Auckland last Thursday, but when I heard Mike King was going to be the main act, I almost pulled the plug! I mean, I’ve copped some abuse in my time, but sittin’ still while an expert scorches you for an hour ain’t exactly my idea of a good time!!

Anyway, it turned out to be a great night. Dale Husband and Julian Wilcox were there, so I announced Julian as the MANA candidate for Tamaki, which got a great big round of applause. I was just jokin’ though …

Heaps of people, lots of laughs and some great korero – particularly an impassioned plea from Mike King for MANA to do something about child abuse. A big challenge but you don’t back away from the tough issues, and next week I will be announcing a simple policy that won’t cost a lot of money but will have an immediate impact on a problem that is destroying Maori society.

On Friday morning I attended the Council of Trade Unions Runanga Kaimahi meeting in Wellington to talk to them about MANA’s rise in the polls, and my own standing in the prime ministerial stakes (lower than Key and Goff, but higher than Don Brash, Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples).

And then on Friday night I attended a meeting at Pipiwai with the other candidates, where Labour’s Kelvin Davis talked about a few things but he had just one issue – education. Not surprising given that he’s a teacher but he struggled with most other issues, choosing to fall back on Labour’s record instead. That got him into hot water with many of those in attendance who pointed out Labour’s atrocious record on a whole host of issues, including education, privatisation, and the Foreshore and Seabed.

The Maori Party candidate relied totally on party policy, because although he’s a nice enough character, he really didn’t have any ideas of his own, and there was another guy that nobody could understand.

I chose to focus on a few issues.

• I said that although Labour was scared to revisit the Foreshore and Seabed issue, I would keep bringing it back to the table until we won Maori title to our takutaimoana.
• I talked about Education, but with a simple focus – that every Maori child in Tai Tokerau can read well, write well, count well and speak well by the time they’re 10.
• I talked about us taking a simpler approach to Employment by focusing on a special Maori jobs project for the north.
• And because everyone freaks when you suggest ideas that might cost a bit of money I also tabled the Hone Heke Tax as the way to pay for the ideas I was suggesting.

The by-election campaign is now officially under way so this’ll be my last AE MARIKA for a few weeks. I hope you’ve enjoyed them all. Watch for the next one on the 28^th!!