RESPECT IS A TWO WAY STREET

We have had a rethink on Hones affirmation speech to parliament - note to self - dont blog til have all the facts.

We only saw a snippet of the telecast of Hone's swearing in and thought that it was because he was speaking Te Reo that got Lockwood all grumpy. But it wasn't he was trying to swear allegiance to the Treaty and the dispossessed.

Anyway we watched Te Karere this morning and Scotty asked Hekia what she thought of Hone's grandstanding.

She put it simply - Marae all over the country have different protocols and its respectful to abide by them. Parliament is a big Marae. There are protocols and Hone should follow them as he would expect people to follow them on his Marae.

and Tariana said the same

However, she did not condone Mr Harawira's actions. She said she would be deeply offended if someone visited her marae and sought to impose their own tikanga [customs.]

"It was a deliberate act. I think it's called stunt politics - you do it because you know you're going to get attention from it."

So Hone expects us to be be nice in his house but is content to shit in ours.

WILL THE 17 HAVE A BUSY WEEK?

Chris Carter reckoned that there were 17 Labour MPs who were keen to replace Goff .

And after Labours woeful showing in Mana we wonder how long it will be before the knives are out and Goff is removed from office. ?

HEKIA WILL TAKE MANA

We have been watching the Mana by election with interest. One of our Maori mates told us they other day that he expected Hekia to win or go dam close. Why? Well she has been endorsed by just about every faction across Maoridom and within the various Pacific communities. She has fronted them, talked good sense and has not made promises she wont be able to keep. Its her frankness and openess that is her strength. She also has that Wahine Toa thing going down as well. There is steel in her spine. She has the X factor when it comes to commanding respect. She doesn't suffer fools and she has considerable intellectual grunt.She is also elegant and easy on the eye. And she laughs a lot . We think she is a cool chick, wouldn't like to cross her, but she has our respect.

She would do the people of Mana proud.

And we are putting our money where our mouth is and investing a few bucks on her winning the seat over on Ipredict

BLAZE OF GLORY

It appears that John Key thinks that Mana is likely to fall to Labour. National must have commissioned some polling and its indicated that there is a sizeable gap - making National the underdog. While it looks like even Labours Mr " Oi Oi" Faafoi will romp to victory, Key is going to ensure that National gives Hekia Parata all the support it can muster. Having the PM take a particular interest in the campaign is testament to the candidate that Parata is.

We like it that even in the face of near certain defeat National goes into the battle all guns blazing.

YEE HA!

STITCH UP?

All the signs are there according to Big News . Personally we would have preferred to see Josie Pagani get the nod. More brains, more politically savvy and way less ego. Instead all the good people of Mana get is an egotistical carpetbagger.

Hekia Parata could do okay if the community out there is divided. After all, she has worked hard on the ground to represent her constituents.