Voters urged to look past the lies and half-truths   19 Sep 2014

MEDIA STATEMENT

19 September

Voters urged to look past the lies and half-truths

Maori Party Co-leaders Te Ururoa Flavell and HonTariana Turia says they’ve been staggered by the blatant lies and half-truths that have been levelled at the party in the last seven days.

“First there was the conspiracy theory about us axing the news and current affairs unit at Maori TV then it was the accusations that we want to scrap the Maori Land Court and the Waitangi Tribunal and to top it off Hone Harawira has claimed that we tried to heavy our Te Tai Tokerau candidate in to standing down yesterday,” says Mr Flavell. “The attacks smack of desperation and frankly we’ve tried to avoid dignifying it with a response, but enough is enough.”

“The worse thing about all these allegations is that they have all come from one source, the Internet Mana Party backed by the billionaire hacker who knows his sponsored party needs to secure a seat in Te Tai Tokerau to drag in other MPs.

“Hone Harawira is a great talker but what has he actually done for his electorate since he’s been in Parliament?”

Mrs Turia says the negative campaigning by the Internet Mana Party and other parties is in stark contrast to the Maori Party that has released 12 policies during the election campaign including their flagship policy Whanau Ora this week.

“When people consider who they’re voting for tomorrow they need to look at which parties have worked constructively in Parliament to deliver real gains for people. The Maori Party is a small machine but we’ve worked tirelessly across a number of portfolios including Health, Maori Affairs, Education, Whanau Ora, Disabilities, Social Development, Employment, Training and skills, Housing and Corrections,” says Mrs Turia.

Mr Flavell says despite the lies and half-truths levelled at the Maori Party, he’s proud of the party for running a clean campaign.

“We’ve had to defend our party from a lot of bizarre allegations this campaign. I hope people realise that there have been powerful forces at play that have nothing to do with what’s good for Maori or what’s good for this country,” says Mr Flavell.

“We’re heartened by the growing support from Maori and non-Maori to give their party vote to the Maori Party. Despite the rubbish being thrown at us, we’ve remained true to our principles.”

Add a comment