One of the surprises of John Key’s Govt has been the evolution of the relationship with the Maori Party as a strong and expanding element of the coalition. Traditionally, there has only been a tenuous empathy between National, and Maori voters. It came under the severest strain at the time of Don Brash’s “One-Nation” speech at Orewa, which attacked separatism in NZ society stemming from radical Maori aspirations.

Now, in an almost total volte-face, the National leadership is encouraging Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia to develop her party’s whanau ora policy, bringing together funding from several Ministries - health, education, housing, social welfare, and justice - for a new approach in service delivery. John Key and Bill English believe it is time, given the failure of the previous policy approach, despite the billions hurled at trying to close the gap, for Maori to seek innovative solutions. They are prepared to risk accusations of special treatment on racial grounds if it means progress can be made in lifting Maori standards, particularly in health and education.

Turia says it is “one of the most ground-breaking projects” she has taken on. Key and English have told her if she can find a viable means to co-ordinate service delivery to Maori, they will back her to the hilt. This contrasts sharply with the knock-backs Turia suffered when she was a member of the Clark Govt. She has set up a taskforce to pull together the policy design, which she believes can build a path for Maori out of state dependency. In effect she wants a co-ordinated approach by private providers to families in need of state assistance, instead of those families struggling to gain help from an array of Ministries working independently of each other. Along with confidence-building exercises the Key Govt has undertaken with the Maori Party, like advancing treaty negotiations, and through a budget which underpinned spending on Maori programmes, the strategy is to deliver the kind of tangible benefit to Maori over the three-year term solidifying the Maori Party as a long-term partner for National. It will refresh the Maori Party’s raison d’etre, and frustrate Labour’s ambition to win back its traditional grip on the Maori vote.

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