Katene shoots herself in the foot

Well, it turns out Rahui Katene has been advertising herself as the MP for Te Tai Tonga on Facebook. 

Katene was claiming yesterday that people were still coming to her “for help”. Well, that’s no surprise when she’s advertising herself as the MP for Te Tai Tonga.

In any event, I find it almost impossible to believe that Christchurch residents are going to Rahui for help. After all, she’s based in Wellington – far removed from Christchurch. Christchurch residents would have to have access to Katene’s personal number, email or address. It’s not plausible that anyone outside of the Maori Party circles have those details. Therefore, it’s likely that Maori Party supporters or those connected with the party are still going to Rahui - if anyone is at all. 

I don’t want to make this story any bigger than it is, because that gives undeserved oxygen to Rahui Katene in her increasingly desperate bid to remain relevant.

 

Rahui Katene claiming to be the MP for Te Tai Tonga

Hangi ban? Nonsense

According to Facebook, John Key is going to ban hangi. Not National, not the government, but John Key personally. John Key is going to ban hangi - at least that’s what my newsfeed says. Of course, in reality, John Key is going to do no such thing, nor is his government for that matter.

The rumour seems to have stemmed from concerns with the Food Bill. However, it's my understanding that the bill only covers food exchanges such as selling and bartering. If this is correct, I think it would be safe to place hangi outside of the ambit of the bill - at least when hangi is being prepared and served on the Marae. It would be a different matter if, say, someone was selling hangi to fund raise.

To repeat: John Key is not going to ban hangi. Tell your friends.

A few interesting fb pages

I was trawling through Facebook today, as you do, and I came across a few pages that might interest readers.

The first is Rino Tirikatene’s campaign page. Tirikatene is the Labour candidate for Te Tai Tonga and is, as far as I know, the only Maori candidate running such a page. Status updates come fairly frequently, there are quite a few photos and all of the basic background information is there. You can check it out here.

The second is tangatawhenua.com’s page (TW.com is the leading Maori news website). Their page is frequently updated with news stories, information on important events and hui and all manner of other things affecting Maori. Other facebook users also post some interesting things on the wall.

The Maori in Oz.com page is also worth a read. The page is updated fairly frequently with some interesting stuff.

The last is the Launch of the Mana Party page. So far 43 people are attending. The page sets out the day’s agenda and Hone kindly links to google maps for people wanting directions.

If you can think of any others link to them in the comments section.