Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent says the Māori Party are not fit to be in Government

Te Pāti Māori's behaviour is once again a topic of discussion following bill burning and allegations of over-spending this week.

Barry Soper told Heather du Plessis-Allan that Te Pāti Māori 'shouldn't be anywhere near Government'.

Soper identified a possible link between the ongoing party controversies and it's culture of nepotism. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And wrapping the political week that was is Barry Sober,
Senior political correspondent.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome back, Barry, thank you, Heather, nice to be here again.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
On the Malory Party, I'll tell you what I find
surprising is that these guys appear to be falling apart,
and yet it's quite quiet.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well it's not so quiet, I think in the labor ranks.
I mean they're quite concerned. And indeed they've gone as
far to say that the Maley Party at the moment
would not be fit to be in government. Well that's
probably a bit of an understatement. Of course, there shouldn't
be anywhere near government the way they've been behaving. And
the thing that I've discovered this week and found it

(00:36):
quite interesting, is the amount of a family that's employed
by Maori Party MPs. I mean Whitey Tear's wife was
the party's press secretary and also John Tammaheady, the president
of the party's daughter, so there's a big linkage there.
And then Might Clark, the young woman who stood and

(00:59):
ripped up the the Treaty Settlement's bill, she's her mother's
working for her, and so too as a sister. And
the rules to me are quite unclear at Parliament as
to whether this should be the case. But I think
my reading of the rules is that they shouldn't be
anywhere near the place employing staff that are so closely.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
My reading of the rules is different to yours. I
think the rules allow it because the rules explicitly ban
an MP from hiring a spouse or a partner, and
then ban an MP from hiring family members who are
financially who are dependent. So you're not dependent if you're the.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Mother, well you're financially dependent if you're receiving a.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Wage only from after you become financially question of timing.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
But it's a silly rule.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
It's a done rule. Should be all family cannot be
employed totally.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Totally, should be no room for nepotism and politics.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
That's right, Verry tell me if this is an unfair
thing to say. But have we gone a little bit
overboard in the praise for Jim Bolger this week? So
I just feel like calling him one of the greatest
prime ministers ever is maybe not historically, that's.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Totally over the top. And even Dom McKinnon to say that,
and Don gave a great eulogy, So I take nothing
away from him at the church yesterday. But to say
that he was by far the best farmer leader that
this country's ever seen, I mean there will be many
listeners that will remember Sir Keith Holyoke. Now Holyoake won

(02:36):
four terms in government, you know, I mean he was seen.
He was fairly revered as a National Party leader. So look,
Jim Bulger, I think he was a very solid pair
of hands, an extraordinarily nice individual and one that I'd
had on a number of occasions a few bush mills

(02:57):
whiskies with over the years. Very nice man. But to
write him up as uh the somebody I read said
that he was the greatest leader that this country's seen
in the past century. I mean that is patently ridiculous.
I mean, Peter Fraser has always been credited with being

(03:18):
the war You.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Don't even have to go that far.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, no, no, I know you don't like what I'm saying.
Is Clark historically Heather that time. You know that when
you look at the century, Peter Fraser is right up there.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
But look, no, I see what you're saying. I mean,
we have got some examples that are the head and
shoulders above everybody else. With her last century. That is
an absolutely fair point to make. Thank you for answering that.
Thank you, and so it wasn't a horrible thing for
me to say today, not at all. Okay, just checking
with you, madam and Davidson though, Yeah, that's it. That's embarrassing,
isn't that.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well? You know, this is well, we're told a year's
work and if that's all she's been doing for the
past year, you've got to ask questions about what their
role is in parliament. But nevertheless, we were told that
it was a year's work that you'd put in on
this piece of legislation. And what did the legislation do.
It was strengthening consumer rights to have goods repaired. Now

(04:12):
what what does that actually mean? Does it mean if
you've got a toaster that breaks down, then you should
be able to take it down to the local repair
shop and get it repaired and it cost you? I
think I don't know what it means.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
No, it means that if you buy a toaster, you
take it back to nol Leaming or whoever you bought
it from and they get it repaired for you.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh yeah, who repairs them.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, nol Leaming or the retails as the tragedy. It's
a terrible idea.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's where I lived when I grew up. They had
a repair man that used to work from his house.
You get toasters and dryers and whatever. Nowadays I just
thrown it Lolwadays you buffer away the built and obsolescence
of items really does get on stick under my crawl really.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
But you know, I mean, what do you do very quickly?
Has the BSA sign up and death warrant?

Speaker 2 (05:01):
I think possibly? So I mean to try and bring
in briefly as it was, the freedom of speech union
is patently absurd under their guys. And also you know,
look the platform. I think they've totally overreacted. And now
we've got, certainly Paul Goldsmith, the Justice Minister, talking in

(05:22):
very strong terms about doing away with the BSA all together.
I say hurrah to that.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Barry, thanks very much. Barry Soper, Senior Political correspondent.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
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