The Hone-Dotcom-Laila political triangle is one of the dirtiest deals in New Zealand political history.
It is as dirty as National-Act in Epsom.
It is as dirty as the Key-Dunne deal in Ohariu.
Frankly, Lalia Harré comments today when she said "it's time for New Zealanders to take back MMP", made me feel sick.
(I've always been queasy about electorate deals - which I've nicknamed "dirty deals" - and the way they undermine MMP.)
That's because Laila Harré is wrecking MMP.
Hone Harawira is wrecking MMP.
And Kim Dotcom is wrecking MMP.
They are using Harawira's seat and MMP's "coat-tail" rule to get a back-door entry into Parliament.
It is a rort.
It is a grubby deal, made all the worse by the fact Harawira holds the Te Tai Tokerau seat - a Maori seat.
The Maori seats are special. They have a unique constitutional role which is to give the Tangata Whenua a place of their own in the New Zealand Parliament.
The Maori seats have been hard fought for.
Never, ever was it envisaged they would be used as a back-door entry for a German millionaire to get his proxy into Parliament.
This will give those opposed to Maori seats ammunition to get rid of them.
Sadly, the Internet Mana deal has diminished the mana of the Maori seats.
And even sadder too, this deal involves money.
Harawira wants Dotcom's money.
Annette Sykes wants Dotcom's money.
John Minto wants Dotcom's money.
They are all willing to pervert the MMP system for the sake of money and it is a venal deal.
Don't try and tell me Laila Harré cares deeply about the internet. She cares about getting into Parliament.
I have a lot of respect for Harawira, Sykes and Minto. They have spent their lives fighting for what they believe in - for points of principle.
But that respect has been tarnished.
They are obsessed by power, obsessed by money and will trample over the rights of New Zealand voters to get it.
This Internet Mana deal is so wrong.
It's wrong, just like the Act-National Epsom deal, the Key-Dunne Ohariu deal, and the likely Colin Craig deal.
We know the public hates the coat-tail rule because polls show that.
The MMP review said the coat-tail rule wasn't needed, but National ignored that.
Key's deals are desperate. The Hone-Dotcom-Laila deal is desperate too.
It is hard to know who is using who. Dotcom wants to stop his extradition, Harawira wants money and a friend or two in Parliament and Harré wants an easy ride in.
It may be a reverse takeover of the Internet Party by the old Alliance.
It may be Dotcom creating a political vehicle made up of whoever he can get to help stop his extradition.
To be truthful, it is probably both.
Dotcom may well end up extradited and trading his black tracksuit for an orange boiler suit doing time in a Federal Penitentiary and the old Alliance will be back in Parliament.
So the list of MMP wreckers just gets longer - Key and his right-wing crew are joined by the Left.
Labour and the Greens are wreckers too. Both prepared to work with the Internet Mana Party lot because "it's within the rules".
The Labour-Greens criticism of Epsom etc was a lie - they only did it because they didn't have a deal of their own. Now they do and deals are okay.
David Cunliffe, Russel Norman and Metiria Turei are now as low as Key and Steven Joyce.
Labour and the Greens are now hypocrites.
No wonder people don't go and vote.
No wonder people get turned off politics.
Across the House, New Zealand's politicians of all colours should hang their heads in shame for sanctioning these grubby deals.
3 News
source: newshub archive
