The Mana Motuhake leadership election, 2001 was held in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

on 2 June 2001 to determine the future leadership of the

Mana Motuhake Mana Māori Motuhake was a Māori people, Māori political party in New Zealand from 1980 to 2005. The name is difficult to translate accurately, but essentially refers to Māori self-rule and self-determination — , in this context, can ...

political movement. The election was won by List MP Willie Jackson.

Background

Members of Mana Motuhake were having growing concerns about the Labour-Alliance coalition government's Maori policies and were seriously considering leaving the

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

(an umbrella party of 5 smaller parties including Mana Motuhake) as a result. Party members were also concerned that Mana Motuhake's identity was becoming subsumed by the Alliance. This led to internal debate around the direction the party was being led, eventually leading Willie Jackson to challenge Sandra Lee for the leadership of the party. A vote was the first item of business at the party's 2001 annual meeting held in Mangere, South Auckland. After initiating the challenge, Jackson had invited Lee to withdraw her name from the ballot, but she decided against it forcing a ballot from party delegates.

Candidates

Sandra Lee

Lee had been an MP since and became Deputy Leader of the Alliance that same year. In 1994 she became leader of Mana Motuhake upon the retirement of party founder

Matiu Rata Matiu Waitai Rata (26 March 1934 – 25 July 1997) was a Māori politician who was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for the Labour Party from 1963 to 1980, and a cabinet minister from 1972 to 1975. In 1979 he resigned from the Labour Pa ...

. Questions were also raised over revelations of her personal life which led senior party members to approach her and voice concern that her affair with Te Puni Kokiri adviser Anaru Vercoe was distracting her from the leadership of the party.

Willie Jackson

Jackson, a List MP since , offered a platform of re-energizing the party, which drew support from many newer party members. Jackson was also highly critical of his party's failure to persuade the Government to do more for Māori and said that Mana Motuhake had become "virtually invisible" under the current leadership. Media also suspected that Jackson was looking for revenge against Lee, who effectively blocked his first attempt to get into Parliament in when she insisted that

Alamein Kopu Manu Alamein Kopu (1943 – 4 December 2011) was a New Zealand politician. Biography Early life and career Kopu was raised in Ōpōtiki, Kopu was the seventh in a family of twenty children. Her family was not wealthy, and Kopu characteris ...

be ranked ahead of him on the Alliance

Party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

Result

The following table gives the delegate ballot results: Supporters of Lee later raised questions about the validity of the vote citing concerns over two busloads of "strangers" that were brought in. The claims were refuted by Jackson who labeled the suggestion as "nonsense".

Aftermath

After his victory was announced, Jackson promised to expel life member Nellie Rata (widow of

) for defecting to ACT and pledged to ask Labour to stand aside for Mana Motuhake in at least one Maori seat at the next election in , a scenario that Labour leader

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

refused to do stating that Labour dealt with the Alliance, not Mana Motuhake. Jackson also affirmed to the media that he had no intention of leading Mana Motuhake away from either the Alliance or the coalition Government. Lee said that her duties as Alliance Deputy Leader and as a cabinet minister allowed her less time to devote to Mana Motuhake's activities and organisational matters which counted against her in the ballot. She stated "Unfortunately, I didn't have the numbers on the day and that's politics in a democracy" and also pledged to continue ensuring Mana Motuhake's committal to continuing an active role within the coalition government. Alliance leader

Jim Anderton James Patrick Anderton (born Byrne; 21 January 1938 – 7 January 2018) was a New Zealand politician who led a succession of left-wing parties after leaving the Labour Party in 1989. Anderton's political career began when he was elected to th ...

publicly voiced his support for Lee, saying "it was Ms Lee's patience and long-term view which had got Mana Motuhake into government".

References

{{NZ Alliance Party 2001 elections in New Zealand Political party leadership elections in New Zealand June 2001 events in New Zealand Mana Motuhake leadership election