Dame Tariana Turia | |
---|---|
1st Minister for Whānau Ora | |
In office 8 April 2010 –8 October 2014 | |
Prime Minister | John Key |
Preceded by | Office Established |
Succeeded by | Te Ururoa Flavell |
2nd Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector | |
In office 15 August 2003 –30 April 2004 | |
Prime Minister | Helen Clark |
Preceded by | Steve Maharey |
Succeeded by | Rick Barker |
In office 19 November 2008 –12 December 2011 | |
Prime Minister | John Key |
Preceded by | Ruth Dyson |
Succeeded by | Jo Goodhew |
Minister for Disability Issues | |
In office 13 June 2009 –8 October 2014 | |
Prime Minister | John Key |
Preceded by | Paula Bennett |
Succeeded by | Nicky Wagner |
Co-leader of the Māori Party | |
In office 7 July 2004 –September 2014 Co-leadingwith Pita Sharples | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Marama Fox |
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Labour Party List | |
In office 12 October 1996 –27 July 2002 | |
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Te Tai Hauāuru | |
In office 27 July 2002 –20 August 2014 | |
Preceded by | Nanaia Mahuta |
Succeeded by | Adrian Rurawhe |
Personal details | |
Born | 8 April 1944 |
Political party | Māori Party (2004–present) |
Other political affiliations | Labour (until 2004) |
Spouse | George Turia |
Dame Tariana Turia DNZM (born 8 April 1944) is a former New Zealand politician. She was first elected to Parliament in 1996. Turia gained considerable prominence during the foreshore and seabed controversy in 2004,and eventually broke with the Labour Party as a result. She resigned from parliament,and successfully contested a by-election in her former electorate as a candidate of the newly formed Māori Party,of which became a co-leader. She retired from Parliament in 2014.
Turia was born in 1944 to an American (probably Native American) father [1] and Māori mother. Her Māori roots are Ngāti Apa,NgāRauru,and Tūwharetoa iwi,among others.[ citation needed ]
She was married to George Turia,who has died. They have 4 children,2 whāngai,28 grandchildren,and great-grandchildren.[ citation needed ]
Before entering politics,she had considerable involvement with a number of Māori organisations,working with Te Puni Kōkiri (the Ministry of Māori Development) and a number of Māori health providers. She also had associations with the Te Kura Kaupapa and kohanga reo movements.
Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1996 –1999 | 45th | List | 20 | Labour | |
1999 –2002 | 46th | List | 16 | Labour | |
2002 –2004 | 47th | Te Tai Hauāuru | None | Labour | |
2004 –2005 | 47th | Te Tai Hauāuru | Māori Party | ||
2005 –2008 | 48th | Te Tai Hauāuru | 1 | Māori Party | |
2008 –2011 | 49th | Te Tai Hauāuru | 1 | Māori Party | |
2011 –2014 | 50th | Te Tai Hauāuru | 7 | Māori Party |
Turia entered the New Zealand Parliament in the 1996 election as a list MP for the Labour Party, ranking 20th on the party list. In the 1999 election, she remained a list MP, but ranked sixteenth. In the 2002 election, however, she contested the Te Tai Hauāuru Māori electorate, and opted not to place herself on the party list at all. Te Tai Hauāuru (roughly, the Māori voters of the west of the North Island) returned her as their member of parliament.
Although never a member of Cabinet, Turia has held a number of non-Cabinet ministerial roles. From Labour's electoral victory in 1999, she served as Associate Minister of Māori Affairs, Associate Minister of Social Services and Employment, Associate Minister of Health, and Associate Minister of Housing. In 2002, she also became Associate Minister of Corrections. After the formation of the Labour–Progressive coalition in 2002, she dropped the Corrections role and gained full ministerial rank as Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector. [2]
When debate about ownership of New Zealand's foreshore and seabed broke out in 2003, and the Labour Party proposed vesting ownership in the state, Turia voiced dissatisfaction. Along with many of her supporters in Te Tai Hauāuru, she claimed that Labour's proposal amounted to an outright confiscation of Māori land. When it became publicly known that Turia might vote against Labour's bill in parliament, tensions between Turia and the Labour Party's leadership increased. The hierarchy strongly implied that if Turia did not support Labour policy, she could not retain her ministerial roles.
On 30 April 2004, after a considerable period of confusion about Turia's intentions, she announced that she would resign from parliament on 17 May. This precipitated a by-election being called in Te Tai Hauāuru, which Turia contested as a member of the new Māori Party that formed around her. On the same day that Turia announced her resignation, Prime Minister Helen Clark sacked her from her ministerial posts. [3]
Her supporters see Turia as having bravely defied her party in order to stand up for her principles. The Labour Party has criticised Turia for putting the foreshore and seabed issue before the party's wider policies for Māori development, and says that she has unreasonably focused on a single issue. Helen Clark said that Turia had shown "an astonishing lack of perspective". [3] Turia described the Te Tai Hauāuru by-election of 10 July 2004 as a chance to test her mandate, and to ensure that she had the support of her voters, but doubts remained about the significance of the by-election, since none of the major parties put forward candidates. Labour called the event "a waste of time and money", although the by-election was required by waka-jumping law in force at the time. [4]
Turia received 92.74% of the vote in the by-election, [5] and resumed her seat in Parliament on 27 July 2004.
On 17 September 2005, the Māori Party contested the general election with electoral candidates in all seven of the Māori seats. Turia was re-elected in Te Tai Hauāuru and that night three more Māori Party candidates won parliamentary seats, Pita Sharples (co-leader) in Tāmaki Makaurau, Hone Harawira in Te Tai Tokerau and Te Ururoa Flavell in Waiariki. The winning of the four seats resulted in celebration for their supporters who anticipated seeing an independent, Māori voice in parliament. However, the Māori Party share of the party vote across the country was 2.1 percent, placing them sixth out of the eight parties in parliament by party vote. This was attributed to voters in the Māori electorates mainly giving their party vote to the incumbent Labour government.
Support for the Māori Party in the 2008 general election increased with the party gaining an additional seat. [6] National won most seats overall, to form a minority government with support from the Māori Party as well as ACT New Zealand and United Future. In return for Māori Party support in confidence and supply, John Key agreed to not abolish the Māori seats without the consent of Māori. [7] It was also agreed to review the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 and to consider Māori representation in a wider constitutional review which began in 2010. [8] Turia and co-leader Sharples were both made Ministers, although like other support party members both remained outside Cabinet. Turia was given the portfolios of Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Associate Minister of Health and Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment, while Sharples was made Minister of Māori Affairs. [9]
When Paula Bennett stepped down as Minister for Disability Issues on 30 June 2009, Key appointed Turia the new minister. [10] In 2010, the National and Māori Parties announced Whānau Ora, a taskforce designed to streamline social service resources. Turia was announced Minister responsible for the implementing of the scheme. [11]
On 7 April 2011, during the term of the 49th New Zealand Parliament, the composition of the Abortion Supervisory Committee was debated. Turia moved that an anti-abortion Pacific Island doctor, Ate Moala, be appointed to the ASC. The vote was lost 67–31 against, with twenty four absences or abstentions. [12]
Turia confirmed in November 2013 that she would retire at the 2014 election. [13]
In 2022, Turia drew media attention for her anti-vaccinationist views and opposition to mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. On 17 February 2022, Turia accused Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of having Nazi sympathies on Radio New Zealand, in an interview about the Sixth Labour Government's response to the 2022 Wellington anti-vaccination protests. She falsely claimed that Ardern had been filmed as a student doing “almost a Heil Hitler salute”. [14] [15]
In the 2023 New Zealand general election, Turia publicly supported her relative Harete Hipango as the National Party candidate for Te Tai Hauāuru, running against Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. [16]
Following the 2023 New Zealand general election, Turia expressed support for the incoming Sixth National Government's plan to scrap the Te Aka Whai Ora (Māori Health Authority). She opined that she would rather see funding being given directly to whanau (families), iwi (tribes), hapū (sub-tribes) to allow them to manage their own health needs. While Turia praised John Key and Bill English for the Fifth National Government's progress on Māori health, she criticised the outgoing Labour Government for allegedly not taking "into account the differences in the way people view things". [17]
In the 2015 New Year Honours, Turia was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as a Member of Parliament. [18]
The New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy is a debate in the politics of New Zealand. It concerns the ownership of the country's foreshore and seabed, with many Māori groups claiming that Māori have a rightful claim to title. These claims are based around historical possession and the Treaty of Waitangi. On 18 November 2004, the New Zealand Parliament passed a law which deems the title to be held by the Crown. This law, the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, was enacted on 24 November 2004. Some sections of the act came into force on 17 January 2005. It was repealed and replaced by the Marine and Coastal Area Act 2011.
The Te Tai Hauauru by-election was a by-election in the New Zealand electorate of Te Tai Hauāuru, one of the Māori electorates. The date set for the by-election was 10 July 2004. It saw the re-election of Tariana Turia, a former MP for the Labour Party and now co-leader of the Māori Party.
Te Pāti Māori, also known as the Māori Party, is a political party in New Zealand advocating Māori rights. With the exception of a handful of general electorates, Te Pāti Māori contests the reserved Māori electorates, in which its main rival is the Labour Party.
In New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially known as the Māori seats, are a special category of electorate that give reserved positions to representatives of Māori in the New Zealand Parliament. Every area in New Zealand is covered by both a general and a Māori electorate; as of 2020, there are seven Māori electorates. Since 1967, candidates in Māori electorates have not needed to be Māori themselves, but to register as a voter in the Māori electorates people need to declare that they are of Māori descent.
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Te Tai Hauāuru is a New Zealand parliamentary Māori electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives, that was first formed for the 1996 election. The electorate was represented by Tariana Turia from 2002 to 2014, first for the Labour Party and then for the Māori Party. Turia retired and was succeeded in 2014 by Labour's Adrian Rurawhe who retained the seat in 2017 and again in 2020.
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