Tariana Turia was shocked to find out that Māori Party candidate Chris McKenzie lost the Te Tai Hauāuru seat to Labour Party candidate Adrian Rurawhe. The Labour Party won six of the seven Māori seats overall last night.
According to Tariana Turia, “This makes me really sad for our people that starting from tomorrow there will be six people who will represent our people in the Māori seats and they won’t be able to do one thing for us.”
Turia is adamant that Labour won't be as effective in the Māori seats compared to the Māori Party and questions why Labour wants to pursue them now.
Turia is also questioning why Labour wants to insert themselves in the Māori electorates when they are at their weakest.
She says, “They've had to rely on the Māori votes to get them to where they are so clearly our people don’t really listen to politics, they didn’t really listen to what Cunliffe had to say.”
With the loss of a seat that Tariana Turia's held for many years, the question is, how does she feel seeing it go to another party?
“Probably feeling a little bit sad that $2.8 billion, the most resources ever to go into Māori and whānau development, hasn't been enough for our people.” she says.
With Turia now retired, she says she may not be in Parliament anymore, but she will remain in the realm of politics.