There’s Something About Hone

by Jeremy Greenbrook-Held

I quite like Hone Harawira, and I honestly didn’t expect to when he entered Parliament in 2005. I tarred him with the antics of his mother, but was pleasantly surprised. His ability to engage with and advocate for his constituency, his ‘call a spade a spade’ attitude, and his ability to cut through the crap that politics tends to generate would generally make him a successful politician.

And this week he doesn’t fail to disappoint.

First,  he went off on a Richard Worth camel ride trip to Paris instead of attending official meetings in Brussels, then he responded to an email questioning his actions in less than poetic language. This has really got under the skin of Stuff.co.nz commentors, who are almost unanimously calling on him to be sacked. The Prime Minister has called Harawira’s comments “deeply offensive”, while Tarina Turia has waded into the fold claiming that Harawira’s actions were damaging to the Maori Party’s reputation.

Now, the trip to Paris wasn’t a great idea (worth noting that Labour MP Rajen Prasad stated at the time “what goes on tour, stays on tour”, while Harawira went right ahead and outed the trip in his own newsletter), and an MP responding to correspondence from a member of the public with abuse isn’t a good look. But the thing is, Harawira doesn’t need to appeal to commentors on Stuff.co.nz. Or John Key. Or even Tariana Turia. Harawira has to appeal to the voters in the Te Tai Tokorau electorate. As Harawira said, his own people will judge him – he’s a straight shooter, doesn’t hide a thing, and I think his constituents respect him immensely for that.

Brendan Burns has blogged that Hone looks likely to go. As much as Labour would like to see the Maori Party cull their most effective highest profile MP, I don’t think it’s very likely. Harawira has a huge majority in his electorate – 32% over Labour’s Kelvin Davis – while Labour won the Party Vote. While Turia and Shapples are bullshiting about their “mana enhancing relationship” with John Key and Rodney Hide, Harawira is saying it how it is, and because of that, I’d say he’s staying right where he is.

***

On a related note, I’m informed that Hone turned up to Sue Bradford’s valedictory, but sat in the public gallery wearing a Hawaiian shirt. You got to hand it to him – the man’s got style.

[EDIT: Oh snap, Jake]

Hone Harawira for Foreign Affairs Minister

by Jake Quinn

My favourite MP has got himself into a little pickle with the Prime Minister calling his comments about white folk “deeply offensive”.

Stuff reports:

In an email exchange released to Radio New Zealand, Mr Harawira accused “white motherf***ers” of “puritanical bullshit” for expecting him to follow the rules.

Most politicians try to be so damn polite all the time, but not Hone, oh no.  He calls a spade a god-damn honkey son of a bitch.

Hone continues:

“White motherf***ers have been raping our lands and ripping us off for centuries and all of a sudden you want me to play along with their puritanical bullshit.”

Well, I’m no historian, but a casual reading of Michael King’s History of New Zealand has me thinking “the man has a point”.

Mr Harawira then went on to say how much time and energy he put into fighting for Maori and what a big role his wife Hilda played in that.

“And quite frankly I don’t give a shit what you or anyone else thinks about it. OK?”

Then he added a postscript saying he should feel free to go to the media.

“I answer to my people, not to them or to anybody else.”

It’s true, he doesn’t care what the mainstream media, or frankly Pakeha New Zealand, think of him.  He’s been battling this lot his whole life.  He has one target audience and that is far-north Maori of his electorate, Te Tai Tokerau, and they love him.

Unfortunately for him (and those of us who like to hear reports of what he gets up to while overseas) the Speaker and his party leaders probably won’t be signing off on any more overseas trips, which is a bummer.  This kind of political story is much more interesting than constant chitchat of raising GST and all the other waffle coming out of the likes of the Tax Working Group and the Treasury.

Hone for Foreign Affairs Minister? Hell, Winston managed it..

Updates:  [And if i were Tariana i’d be a little bit careful about how I handled Hone on this one, it’s not like he was the biggest fan of going into government with the Nats in the first place.]

[Do check out Hone’s press release about his trip to Paris which the standard describes as “a hilarious send up of the medium, including a section starting ‘here are your questions’ spoofing the slightly sinister habit of governments including Q+As in their press releases on new policies, where they decide not only the answers but the questions too.”  Fantastic.]

Bill English’s press secretary deserves a DB

by Jake Quinn

So Bill English’s office changed the words of the dodgy promo ad.  That sounds like ‘political interference’ doesn’t it?  That is, untill you read the embarrassing original script, where it turns out it was more like some well timed ass-saving.

BK Drinkwater is on the mark here saying: “The initial TVNZ script was bad. How bad? I’ve walked in on people having really weird sex and the result was less embarrassing than this ad would have been had it gone to air as drafted.”

He outlines the changes:

• SCRIPT: We can beat those Aussies. Time to back ourselves – kick for the corner then muscle over the line.
• REWRITE: You know, we can beat those Aussies. It’s time to back ourselves. With a bit of old-fashioned Kiwi can-do, we’ll get there.

• SCRIPT: It’s time to give the snip snap to the zip zap plastic fantastic (make finger scissors gesture).
• REWRITE: Lets get investing and back our exporters. That’s where the jobs will come and that’s how we can boost our incomes.

• SCRIPT: Keep a few bob in the bank and Bob will be your uncle. We’ll get there. Bottom line: it’s your economy too.
• REWRITE: We’re nearly through the tough times and things are looking up. We have plenty of work to do. But I’m confident New Zealanders are up for it and together we’ll do it.  (Changed by TVNZ for final cut to: We’re nearly through the tough times and things are looking up. Together us Kiwis can do it.)

The mind-numbing rugby analogies creeping into political discourse are irritating at best (“rolling mauls” and all that) and as Mr BK rightly points out, “In my experience, New Zealanders generally can grasp a point without it first being converted into a rugby metaphor. Besides that, the metaphor’s crap: usually, kicks to the corner result in a try more due to the speed of the wingers than the muscle of the front row.”

I can only assume TVNZ’s “writers” were trying to make him sound like the odd-smelling sheep-farming uncle from the bay that no one wants to sit next to at family functions, who speaks in old-timer quips and that nobody thinks is funny.  “Bob will be your uncle!”  Jesus.  Thank goodness his office got to run their pencils over this thing.

Putting aside that this promo video achieved two things, neither of which helped Mr English – it embarrassed the government and its finance minister because it walked and quacked like a political advert, and that it probably quadrupled the ratings of the TVNZ7 economy show – Bill would have sounded like an utter moron had he spoken the original lines.

So while he shouldn’t have done the bloody thing in the first place, top marks must go to his press secretary for saving his/her boss further embarrassment.