I didn’t have the privilege of working with Dame Tariana in any substantive way but I developed a very high regard for her integrity and commitment to the wellbeing of New Zealanders, and especially Maori New Zealanders of course.
The National Party did very well in the 2005 general election, increasing its Parliamentary representation from 27 MPs after the 2002 election to 48 after the 2005 election. But 48 was a long way short of the 61 MPs needed to form a Government. Even with ACT’s two MPs and Peter Dunne’s three, we were still a long way short of 61.
It was Rodney Hide who urged me to try to form a Government. He told me that Tariana Turia would much prefer to support a National-led Government than a Labour-led one. And so I talked to Tariana and the Maori Party Co-Leader, Pita Sharples.
I explained that the National Party had campaigned on abolishing the separate Maori electorates – an anachronism which should have been scrapped years before, and certainly when New Zealand adopted MMP in 1996, as the Royal Commission on the Electoral System had recommended in 1986. Tariana said she could live with that as long as all Treaty settlements were concluded before the abolition. I in turn said that we could live with that, given that our policy on Treaty settlements was to provide one more year to lodge Treaty claims and a further five years to resolve those claims.
With the Maori Party’s four MPs, the total number in a National-led coalition was up to 57, exactly the same number that Helen Clark could command (50 Labour, six Green, plus Jim Anderton).
In the event of course, and after his customary haggling, Mr Peters took New Zealand First’s seven MPs into coalition with Helen Clark and the rest, as they say, is history.
But months later, National tried to introduce legislation from Opposition to make it easier for employers to dismiss workers within the first 90 days of their employment. The purpose of course was to increase the employment opportunities for those with no employment track-record, or a track-record which was less than perfect. Tariana Turia understood perfectly that among the main beneficiaries of such a law would be young Maori without an employment track record. With the Maori Party’s four votes and the seven from New Zealand First, plus those of ACT, United Future and National, we got a Bill through its first Reading to make it relatively easy to dismiss a new employee within 90 days of the employment relationship beginning. Alas, before the second Reading of the Bill, one member of the Maori Party caucus persuaded that party to withdraw its support.
Tariana Turia and I disagreed on a number of issues, but I greatly admired her integrity and her courage. She was a fine New Zealander. I had the good fortune to visit her at her home in Wanganui only a few months ago.
Don Brash
6 January 2025