Labour’s candidate set for Northern victory

Press, 6 June 1980, Page 14

Labour’s candidate set for Northern victory

Special correspondent Northern Maori can expect to have a new member of Parliament, a personable but reserved Kaitaia medical practitioner after tomorrow. Dr Bruce Gregory, aged 43, will undoubtedly be swept into Parliament. Maoridom has set its face against Mr M. Rata, for 17 years the member of Parliament for Northern Maori

Since Mr Rata resigned from the Labour Party - on November 6, this reporter has talked with Maoris on a number of trips around the electorate.

At the last count 58 per cent of people who said they intended to vote and who indicated a preference, said that they would vote Labour. Mr Rata (Mana Motuhake) limps in with 23 per cent, followed closely by Social Credit at 19 per cent. The Social Credit people believe they will actually top Mr Rata.

The figures may not accurately , reflect the final result and are not presented as a scientific poll. It is possible that Mr Rata and Social Credit have pockets of support in some communities not visited. But the Labour lead is obviously huge. Mr Rata resigned frim the Labour Party,' he says, because he believed it had become “insensitive” to Maori issues. He has some support for that view. A young Maori woman — long an activist in the Labour Party — said that

she broke down and cried at the party’s annual conference in Wellington last year because of its indifference to Maori things. She claims that it was only with difficulty that the party’s Maori policy council had its report read to the full conference at the last minute.

That report, read by the Maori,, council chairman, Mr Rata, was both a cry for help and a warning.

Near the end of the twopage report, Mr Rata said: “Let me therefore stress that we will no longer tolerate policies which take no account of our language, customs and lifestyle.

“Nor will we continue to accept being governed or administered by anyone who does not understand the way we think or appreciate our terms and values. Such people must be removed.” The report was allegedly greeted with patronising claps. Getting Maoris to stand on their own feet and control their own affairs is much of what Mr Rata and his Mana Motuhake Movement is on about. He is alarmed at the high unemployment among Maoris (especially among the young) the crime rate among his people, and their failure in schools.

But Maoridom is rejecting Mr Rata because:

There are suspicions over his motives for resigning, many believe he was piqued because he was moved sideways.

He committed — in the eyes of many — a gross breach of Maori stiquette in not consulting his people resigning. Many Maoris — particularly - in Northland — dislike him. They ask what has he done for them in 17 years. There is real doubt that he could be effective as an independent MP. Many remain staunch Labour supporters and they do not accept that the party has been insensitive. Quite a number believe that Mana Motuhake is “separatist” (in spite of Mr Rata’s denials) and that between Moari and Pakeha. The likeable Mr Rata is an interesting study. There is at least one independent Parliamentiary observer who believes he was lazy as an MP and Minister for Maori affairs. But it is difficult to dismiss the one-time seaman and spray painter as a fool. Though he can be rambling and obscure on some occasions he can at others show real command of his subject. In private conservation he can say nice things about his political opponents and publicly he can veer from hardline statements to ones which preach the rule of law. He tends to blame all Maori woes on the Pakeha, however, and paint the Maori situation only in black. Dr Gregory meanwhile, says he is entering the political scene

because he has only been scratching at the surface of his people’s problems. . “No amount of tablets are going to cure the social ills of our society, particularly in relation to Maoridom.”

But Dr Gregory also talks about growing Maori strength and says the two races are too deeply merged for isolation to be an answer.

Though he comes across quite well at a personal level he is a wooden and academic platform speaker. Maoris like heat and emotion, and he thus has a few detractors. But his supporters — and there are many — note with approval that he talks in Maori with his elderly Maori patients. The Social Credit candidate, Mr Joe Toia, a Dargaville forest farm foremain, has timed his campaign nicely with a collecting statements and policies. Several weeks ago only about 8 per cent of electors seemed to support him, but his support has risen sharply at the expense of Labour.

Whatever the outcome, Mr Rata’s actions have focussed new attention in Maori issues. The Labour Party has been shocked into reassessing its attitude to its traditional Maori support.

At this stage Mr Rata is saying that even if he does lose he will begin campaigning for the 1981 election. But first — it seems — he will have to look for a job. He will not become eligible for a parliamentary pension until the age of 50 .