THE MANIFESTO of Te Pati Maori includes policies that many struggling New Zealanders would identify with and probably support. For example, it's doubtful that few economically besieged families, of whatever ethnicity, would disagree with the party's policy to take the GST off food. Its proposal was introduced as an amendment bill in March but was rejected by National, ACT, NZ First and Labour. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi called it a 'sad day' for New Zealand's poor.
Similarly, while the National-led government's 'big idea' to provide 'hardworking New Zealanders' tax relief has proven to be something of a con job, how many New Zealanders know that Te Pati Maori proposes that anyone earning less than $30,000 per year would not have to pay income tax? And there would be substantial economic benefits for folk on higher incomes. Under Te Pati Maori's tax regime, a person earning $60,000, for example, would receive an extra $125 a week. That's certainly more inviting than the $30 a fortnight a person earning $70,000 will receive under the coalition government's tax regime.
Te Pati Maori's tax proposals are all part of a plan to tilt the playing field back in the direction of working people. Among other policies, it proposes to increase the company tax rate from 28 percent to 33 percent. And it would also introduce a wealth tax, a policy that has also been adopted by the Green Party.
Such policies represent a rejection of the neoliberal regime that continues to exacerbate the country's already chronic levels of poverty and inequality. But it's doubtful that many folk have any real understanding of Te Pati Maori's economic policies.
Te Pati Maori can justifiably argue that it gets short shrift from a media fixated with Labour and National, but it is also its own worst enemy. Rather than seeking to be build a party with a broad-based base, its leadership continues to act in a way that only alienates it from potential supporters.
This week, when the Government's economic agenda is under heavy scrutiny, Rawiri Waititi's inflammatory comments about a 'Pakeha government' and a 'Pakeha budget', has been a distraction. It has only played into the hands of a political establishment all too ready to fence off Te Pati Maori as 'racist' and 'extremist'. It also doesn't help when the co-leader of the Green Party, Marama Davidson, refuses to reject such comments.
The 2024 Budget represents a continuation of austerity and ensures that little will change for working class people, both Pakeha and Maori. While Te Pati Maori might talk of a European political system that ignores the interests of Maori, that view also ignores inconvenient facts like, that under the previous Labour Government, Labour had the largest Maori caucus in its history. While the leader of that caucus, Willie Jackson, might legitimately complain that Budget 2024 has 'completely ignored' Maori, the fact remains that working class Maori made little economic progress under the Labour Government of Jacinda Ardern. And Willie 'I'm not a socialist' Jackson and his fellow Maori MPs did next to nothing to oppose Labour's neoliberal economic policies that ensured that working class Maori remained at the bottom of the economic pile, along with working class Pakeha. While Jackson was celebrating his Maori 'cultural renaissance', working class Maori families were still struggling to put food on the table every day.
But it seems that while Te Pati Maori policies suggest that, unlike Labours economic agenda, it is firmly opposed to neoliberalism, its leadership continues to act in a way that obscures that fact. Rawiri Waititi might think that the system is ranged against Maori, but a recent poll revealed that over half of all New Zealanders think the system is rigged in favour of the rich and powerful. The leadership of Te Pati Maori might like to focus on that fact rather than risk being accused of actually working against the interests of working class Maori. While the aim of a 'Te Tiriti-centric New Zealand' might appear progressive, it would only entrench an economic status quo where the majority of Maori remain in poverty while Maori tribal business interests continue to control assets now approaching $100 billion.
A refreshingly considered view compared to the racist rants from people like Sean Plunket and Chris Trotter.
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