Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere - said to be the architect behind the coup of enticing Meka Whaitiri to the Māori Party - says the floodgates could be opening “but ultimately that’s a gift I can’t give”.
“That belongs to the heart, souls and minds of others,” Tamihere said of the October Election.
Speaking the day after the political bombshell revelations that the Labour Cabinet Minister was quitting her post and going back to her whakapapa and calling to Te Pāti Māori, the Herald can reveal that at least three other sitting MPs - two Labour and a Green MP - are on the party’s hit list.
“Everyone knows yesterday was seismic,” Tamihere said.
He said Whaitiri crossed the political floor for all the right reasons.
“She crossed the floor, not out of protest, not out of bitterness but because she had liberated herself from a party controlled by non-Māori,” he said.
Tamihere added as Te Pāti Māori president, it was his job to build the party infrastructure and the mana in the movement.
“It is our job in the executive to screen potential candidates and to put feelers out for appropriate candidates.
“We do feel sorry for our whānau trapped within other parties. However, now they do know they too can free themselves and return home to their waka, their whenua, their whakapapa.
“Rawiri and Debbie have been outstanding and are doing the job of 20, not 2.
“Meka is an experienced campaigner and will add more steel to the party line-up.”
Whaitiri was 12 years CEO of the Ngāti Kahungunu iwi, 10 years chief of staff for former Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Parekura Horomia and prior to that six years as a senior public servant.
“She brings a level of management expertise about work in Parliament that a newbie doesn’t,” Tamihere said,
“She also gets around and does the Parekura. She will try to find a tangi to go to even if she doesn’t know the person.”
Tamihere said Te Pāti Māori strategy was simple. Target your audience.
“Here’s the thing. We don’t care what 90 per cent of people think.
“We are after our votes and concentrate on our vote.
“The beauty about Te Pāti Māori is others don’t have anything to say about our votes.”
Come October, the country will see how that strategy has worked - or not.