Hipkins has repeatedly deflected questions about Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, saying he would establish closer to the election which parties Labour could work with.<\/p>\n
Labour MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel says the party will work with Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori once it sorts out its issues. Photo \/ Paul Taylor <\/p>\n
Jackson, central to the party\u2019s fight to regain the seven M\u0101ori seats, having won just one in 2023, said to a crowd at a Waitangi Day festival in West Auckland that Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori could be worked with if it meant replacing the current Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll work with the Greens, the M\u0101ori Party, whoever in terms of trying to get rid of a Government that is attacking M\u0101ori every day, every week, all the time,\u201d Jackson said to cheers.<\/p>\n
Tangaere-Manuel, who won Labour\u2019s only M\u0101ori electorate in 2023 in Ikaroa-R\u0101whiti, told reporters ahead of Labour\u2019s caucus meeting this morning she felt both Hipkins and Jackson were correct in their comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they sort their issues out, we\u2019ll be able to work with them,\u201d Tangaere-Manuel said of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a long way from the election at the moment and when we do get there and when we are in a position to negotiate, that\u2019s when we\u2019ll make our announcements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about Tangaere-Manuel\u2019s comments, Hipkins said he hadn\u2019t seen her statements but reiterated his position.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t seen the comments directly, but I\u2019m absolutely confident in the conversations I\u2019ve had with all of our MPs, that we\u2019re all on the same page around setting that out closer to the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Jackson, Hipkins described those comments as a \u201clittle rhetorical flourish\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course we are all committed to getting rid of this Government, that is a different conversation to who we could work with in Government after the election and we will set that out close to the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson, speaking this morning, wouldn\u2019t say whether Tangaere-Manuel\u2019s comments were premature.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, we\u2019ll see what happens because Cushla has very close relationships with [Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori] too, but she absolutely wants to win her seat and we\u2019ll be going all out to win her seat on the East Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n
He dismissed any suggestion he had gone too far in his address in West Auckland, claiming \u201ctouchy\u201d journalists and a \u201cdesperate\u201d National MP Chris Bishop had taken his comments out of context.<\/p>\n
Jackson\u2019s mention of Bishop refers to the attack the latter launched on Labour as Hutt South MP in a press release yesterday, claiming Labour MPs are telling \u201cdifferent stories\u201d about the party\u2019s relationship with Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n
Labour MP Willie Jackson (right) has endorsed the position of his leader Chris Hipkins (left). Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Jackson endorsed Hipkins\u2019 position not to elaborate Labour\u2019s stance until closer to the election but added he would not resile from having close relationships with Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t made our final decisions but that doesn\u2019t mean to say that we don\u2019t have good cordial relationships with them, and have a bit of fun with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I\u2019m the first one who\u2019ll put the boot into Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, and they\u2019re the first ones to put the boot into us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori would need to change for Labour to consider working with the party, Jackson referenced the party\u2019s \u201cextreme views\u201d, mentioning its policy to abolish prisons and the creation of a M\u0101ori Parliament.<\/p>\n
He later clarified Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori had the freedom to choose its own policies but that some, like those he had mentioned, were not policies Labour would entertain in any future coalition negotiations.<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hipkins has repeatedly deflected questions about Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, saying he would establish closer to the election which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9526,104792,1452,6721,2720,6368,111,43,139,69,6029,3111,4762,46800,155558,52562,53316,30947,104793,8690,165,8229,1316,1533,102,4576],"class_list":["post-276288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-another","tag-cushla","tag-issues","tag-labour","tag-mori","tag-mp","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-once","tag-out","tag-party","tag-pti","tag-resolved","tag-sort","tag-suggesting","tag-suggests","tag-tangaeremanuel","tag-te","tag-their","tag-they","tag-when","tag-will","tag-with","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}