After Trotter attacking the Maori Party for their traitorous action of censuring Winston Peters [Tawdry Spectacle], he continues his attack on the Maori Party with a new article in today's Sunday Star Times.
The point of this article is to inform voters that the Maori Party cannot be trusted as a coalition partner, and will try to act undemocratically.
The post is devoid of his usual inflammatory rhetoric and he makes his points reasonably well. I wondered for a moment what his purpose was, and it didn't take long to put 2 and 2 together.
Trotter is coming to the realisation National can win the election if it finds a coalition partner. The nature of MMP means that they may struggle to govern alone. On reflection, the only potential partners of any strength will be ACT and the Maori Party. ACT is not worth worrying about right now, so it makes sense to him to start poisoning the Maori Party's mana. If he can swing public opinion around to push for a National/Maori Party negotiation before the election, he hopes they will come to blows and damage both parties, perhaps even strengthen Labour's position from the "risk proposition".
You can bet if the Maori Party come out supporting Labour as a coalition party, these last few articles of his will be forgotten and a stirring "clarification" story will paint them and their demands as being entirely reasonable and in line with Labour policy any way.
Until that moment crystallizes, the Maori Party move to public enemy number one, if only to weaken National's position:
Nice try Chris.
REF: Sunday Star Times A13, 28 September 2008 and link on Stuff (thanks Sean).
Dave at Big News with further comment shows no stomach for Trotter's Tripe
The point of this article is to inform voters that the Maori Party cannot be trusted as a coalition partner, and will try to act undemocratically.
The post is devoid of his usual inflammatory rhetoric and he makes his points reasonably well. I wondered for a moment what his purpose was, and it didn't take long to put 2 and 2 together.
Trotter is coming to the realisation National can win the election if it finds a coalition partner. The nature of MMP means that they may struggle to govern alone. On reflection, the only potential partners of any strength will be ACT and the Maori Party. ACT is not worth worrying about right now, so it makes sense to him to start poisoning the Maori Party's mana. If he can swing public opinion around to push for a National/Maori Party negotiation before the election, he hopes they will come to blows and damage both parties, perhaps even strengthen Labour's position from the "risk proposition".
You can bet if the Maori Party come out supporting Labour as a coalition party, these last few articles of his will be forgotten and a stirring "clarification" story will paint them and their demands as being entirely reasonable and in line with Labour policy any way.
Until that moment crystallizes, the Maori Party move to public enemy number one, if only to weaken National's position:
Perhaps the voters of New Zealand should put aside their concerns about a National Party "secret agenda", and ask whether the real hidden agenda is the one the Maori Party has been developing. We do not want to wake up the day after the election to discover the future of our country has fallen into the hands of people seeking to form a government-within-a-government, and where the decisions of the state are no longer to be determined by anything so "tikanga Pakeha" as a democratic headcount."
Nice try Chris.
REF: Sunday Star Times A13, 28 September 2008 and link on Stuff (thanks Sean).
Dave at Big News with further comment shows no stomach for Trotter's Tripe