NZ POLITICS DAILY: Bradford’s back

Parliament will be a more interesting place if Sue Bradford is successful in her attempt to return there.

She’s finally been official announced as the Mana Party candidate for the general seat of Waitakere – see: Bradford confirms she's standing for Mana party.

And because Bradford’s apparently very popular among Mana activists, she can expect a relatively high list placing.

Certainly there’s a lot of reason to believe that she is likely to be ranked #2 after Hone Harawira if Annette Sykes decides against standing for Parliament – although iPredict currently suggests the chances of Bradford being #2 are an incredibly low 3%.

Certainly Bradford will lend Mana a more leftwing character. Where she failed to get the Greens to ‘stick to the left’, it’s possible she might have more luck with Mana, especially since Willie Jackson has pulled out as a candidate.

Although Jackson might have also made Parliament a more interesting place, he would have had a very centrist affect on Mana, and it’s telling that the main reason he gave for not standing in the Tamaki Makaurau electorate was that he didn’t want to effectively aid Labour winning the seat of the National-friendly Maori Party.

So the battle goes on within Mana to decide it’s ideological trajectory. Will it be essentially another ethnic-oriented Maori party with some leftwing add-ons, or will be a socialist-style party with a particular focus on Maori oppression?

These might sound like similar options, but they mean very different things in practice. Interestingly, some other Mana candidates are currently being announced and this will help answer the question.

For example, Ngawai Herewini is going to contest the general seat of Northland for Mana, and she has the appearance of being much more Maori nationalist than socialist.

And more noteworthy, prominent Maori campaigner and academic Angeline Greensill is going to be the Mana candidate for Hauraki-Waikato. The daughter of Eva Rickard, Greensill is a long time Maori land rights campaigner, and has been through a plethora of Maori nationalist parties: Mana Motuhake, Mana Māori Movement, the Maori Party and now Mana.

So at the moment, it appears that Bradford might once again play the role of the sole, staunch lefty within a party that isn’t quite in sync with her progressive left politics. However, much will depend on the likes of Matt McCarten and John Minto bolstering Bradford’s ideological crusade.

But don’t necessarily expect Annette Sykes to be an ally of Bradford within the party – Sykes seems to still be enthralled with the likes of Mana supporter Margaret Mutu, and she even gave Mutu her support recently over the anti-white immigration controversy. In fact, it’s also telling that, no Mana leader has been willing to publicly disagree or condemn Mutu’s high-profile stance.

Other particularly interesting or important items for today include: David Farrar’s Are the public tuned in?, Janika ter Ellen’s Social media set to star this November, Duncan Garner’s Waterfront takeover will have long-lasting effect – Video, John Armstrong’s Goff flays Nats over World Cup chaos, Vernon Small’s Time to keep eye on ball, and Tim Watkin’s RWC crowd chaos.

Bryce Edwards, NZPD Editor (bryce.edwards@otago.ac.nz)

Today’s content:

RWC: McCully’s seizure of control

TV3: Waterfront takeover will have long-lasting effect – Garner

John Armstrong (NZH): Goff flays Nats over World Cup chaos

Vernon Small (Dom Post): Time to keep eye on ball

Tim Watkin (TVNZ): RWC crowd chaos

Tracy Watkins (Stuff): McCully acts true to form

John Hartevelt and Belinda McCammon (Stuff): Battle for cup fanzone continues

Bernard Orsman (NZH): Brown plays down McCully takeover of World Cup Party Central

Dean Knight (Laws 179): Nationalisation of RWC party central?