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 Hau?uru M?ori electorate, and opted not to place herself on the party list at all. Te Tai Hau?uru (roughly, the M?ori 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 M?ori 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]
Foreshore and seabed legislation
edit
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 Hau?uru, she claimed that Labour's proposal amounted to an outright confiscation of M?ori 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 Hau?uru, which Turia contested as a member of the new
M?ori 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 M?ori 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 Hau?uru 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.
2005 general election
edit
Turia and
Pita Sharples
in 2005
On 17 September 2005, the M?ori Party contested the
general election
with electoral candidates in all seven of the M?ori seats. Turia was re-elected in Te Tai Hau?uru and that night three more M?ori Party candidates won parliamentary seats,
Pita Sharples
(co-leader) in T?maki 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, M?ori voice in parliament. However, the M?ori 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 M?ori electorates mainly giving their party vote to the incumbent Labour government.
2008 general election and ministerial posts
edit
Support for the M?ori 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 M?ori Party as well as
ACT New Zealand
and
United Future
. In return for M?ori Party support in confidence and supply, John Key agreed to not abolish the M?ori seats without the consent of M?ori.
[7]
It was also agreed to review the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 and to consider M?ori 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 M?ori 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 M?ori Parties announced
Wh?nau 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]
Official government portrait,
c.
?2014
Turia confirmed in November 2013 that she would retire at the
2014 election
.
[13]