{"id":266,"date":"2026-01-25T15:15:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/?p=266"},"modified":"2026-01-26T07:58:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T18:58:41","slug":"the-spider-the-tide-and-this-years-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/2026\/01\/25\/the-spider-the-tide-and-this-years-election\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spider, the Tide, and This Year\u2019s Election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Spider, the Tide, and This Year\u2019s Election<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

E t\u0101 ki te hihi o te r\u0101 whakam\u0101rama, te horihori I te tikanga o te k\u014drero, pai m\u0101rire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paint these with the rays of the enlightening sun, the lies from the right information, good peace<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an election year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What follows is a brief opinion of the political context and the powers at play in this election. This article begins and ends with the relevance of our oati pounamu<\/em>\u2014our prized greenstone covenant\u2014Te Tiriti o Waitangi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I often sit in my lounge and watch the Prime Minister on television, and it can feel like a surreal dream world. For those of us familiar with the colonial capitalist history of this country, and with the promises made at the founding of the state, the talk from both the Prime Minister,  or anyone in government for that matter, is more like an occupying force speaking to us than anything. This is because those promises in Te Tiriti o Waitangi\u2014most importantly tino rangatiratanga\u2014have never been honoured fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that said, let me say from the outset that the left are the only side of the political spectrum that want to do something about climate change, poverty, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and \/or anything for the working class and poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I wade into this neoliberal dream, and briefly outline how I see the political parties today, and the external influences shaping this year\u2019s election<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour is weak and continues to be neoliberal. I don\u2019t see the policies, nor the \u201csense of hope\u201d that Chris Hipkins speaks of. There needs to be a strong alternative to National and its allies. Labour\u2019s new election pledges like the Future Fund, sound like little more than localised, extra capitalism, and their weak approach to a capital gains tax\u2014excluding farms, inheritance, and other taxable wealth\u2014feels like National-lite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, Labour would still be a markedly better and a more compassionate government than what National and the broader right wing are offering, and perhaps the Greens and the M\u0101ori party could force their hand towards stronger policies for the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

National is a truly kooky group of out-of-touch, mostly wealthy people. They represent austerity and they continue the redistribution of wealth upwards to corporations and the already-wealthy elite who bankroll them. They appear to follow their donors faithfully, with little compassion for the poor and deep contempt even for what many might still imagine as a \u201cNew Zealand way\u201d ie: caring for one another, strong public services, and protection for the vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT is National on steroids\u2014pushing extreme enrichment of the few, individualism and the privatisation of whatever publicly operated services remain. They serve corporate interests by the letter and are a violence to M\u0101ori rights, the poor and working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Zealand First<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a somewhat senile Winston Peters, alongside tikanga-kore, k\u016bpapa ki te moni pakihi (ethically void, loyal to big business) Shane Jones, New Zealand First have drifted to the right. Their politics have centred on empty culture wars, and over the past three years, they have propped up the economic aims of this neo liberal government against the poor, which deserves condemnation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He taonga te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori.<\/strong>
I ahu mai te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori i te p\u014dharu i mahue mai i te ture Foreshore and Seabed, i raro i te arataki a Dame Tariana T\u016bria r\u0101ua ko Sir Pita Sharples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I maranga mai an\u014d Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori i a Rawiri Waititi r\u0101ua ko Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, engari n\u0101wai i te waw\u0101 t\u0113tahi ki t\u0113tahi, me te mea nei kua paremo ki te moana. E taea r\u0101nei te p\u0113whea? He painga kei roto i ng\u0101 kaupapa ture a Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, kei au, me rapa ki \u0113nei. Ka ui p\u0101tai tonu t\u0101tou: ka ara an\u014d r\u0101nei i mua i te p\u014dtitanga? M\u0101 te Atua pea hei titiro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taonga of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori was forged out of the political soil left by the Foreshore and Seabed debacle, led by Dame Tariana T\u016bria and Sir Pita Sharples. The party rose again under Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, but recent infighting has been deeply sad to witness. At present, it feels as though the party has sunk beneath the waves. What could help? Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori does have strong policy, to me they should stick to these policy ideas and move forward. whether they can rise again before the election\u2014only God may know.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greens offer the most common-sense policy, especially for the two emergencies of our nation, poverty and climate change, they also \u201camo\u201d or carry Te Tiriti o Waitangi and have great ambassadors for Te iwi M\u0101ori within their party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free dental care, free childcare\u2014 The income guarantee for the poor, these are not radical ideas, but practical and humane reforms. Not to sound like an employee of the Green Party or anything, and also if it were up to me i would go further and re-nationalise the electricity and other sectors, for example, and set the wealth tax higher, but the Greens represent the most evidence-based and compassionate vision for the future of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside Influences<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many big-money interests circling this election, and I expect it to be a brutal year in the media and on our collective senses. Getting out the vote will be crucial. I hope M\u0101ori influencers will encourage wh\u0101nau to participate\u2014considering the past three years of this government, so much depends on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ActionStation has had a meaningful impact over the last term for the left, and I hope they continue their work this year, supporting kaupapa M\u0101ori and standing alongside the poor and vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to Te Tiriti<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To circle back to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Only two of these parties centre in anyway Te Tiriti o Waitangi the Greens and the M\u0101ori party ,Aperehama Taonui warned that we must not allow Te Tiriti to become \u201ca home for the spider.\u201d Te Puea H\u0113rangi cautioned that Te Tiriti must not be left to drift like \u201ca tide at sea.\u201d Hence the title of this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tides are changing; we saw just over 50 per cent of M\u0101ori ward votes in the affirmative this year. Something unbelievable just ten years ago. This means there is growing non-M\u0101ori support. Kei te kumea te riu o te waka ki nga rango tapu. We are dragging our shared waka of prosperity to the sacred rollers out to sea.<\/em>   Dust the spider and its webs away, and help bring Te Tiriti, which has been under direct attack in the last three years close to shore\u2014back to its home, into the living rooms of all of Aotearoa. A promise of tino rangatiratanga and rangimarie (peace<\/em>) for all, in this at times surreal world. Security, and dignity for the poor and for all New Zealanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pai m\u0101rire.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good peace.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Spider, the Tide, and This Year\u2019s Election E t\u0101 ki te hihi o te r\u0101 whakam\u0101rama, te horihori I te tikanga o te k\u014drero, pai m\u0101rire Paint these with…Continue readingThe Spider, the Tide, and This Year\u2019s Election<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277,"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.takiora.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}