Tau Henare

The Honourable Tau Henare MP
38th Minister of Māori Affairs
In office 1996–1999
Prime Minister	Jim Bolger, Jenny Shipley
Preceded by	John Luxton
Succeeded by	Dover Samuels
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Northern Maori
In office 1993 – 1996
Preceded by	Bruce Gregory
Succeeded by	constituency abolished
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau
In office 1996 – 1999
Preceded by	new constituency
Succeeded by	Dover Samuels
1st Leader of Mauri Pacific
In office 1998–1999
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for National Party list
Incumbent
Assumed office 2005
Personal details
Born	29 September 1960 (1960-09-29) Auckland
Political party	New Zealand First (1993–1998) Mauri Pacific (1998–1999) National (2005 – present)
Relations	Taurekareka Henare (grandfather)
Committees	Mäori Affairs Committee (chairperson) Transport and Industrial Relations Committee Auckland Governance Legislation Committee

Tau Henare (born 29 September 1960) is a New Zealand Māori parliamentarian. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1993 to 1999 and returned to Parliament in 2005. He has been involved with four political parties: Mana Motuhake, New Zealand First, Mauri Pacific and the National Party - representing three in parliament.

Early life

Henare was born and educated in Auckland. Before entering politics, he held a number of governmental and consultancy positions, including advisory roles at the Department of Internal Affairs and with the Waitakere City Council. His family has a political history, with Henare's great-grandfather, Taurekareka (Tau) Henare, having served in Parliament from 1914 to 1948 alongside famous Māori politicians such as Apirana Ngata, James Carroll and Maui Pomare. Henare's own involvement with Māori politics began with Mana Motuhake, a purely Māori party. When Winston Peters (himself half Māori) established the New Zealand First party, Henare changed the focus of his activities.

Member of Parliament

Parliament of New Zealand
Years	Term	Electorate	List	Party
1993–1996	44th	Northern Maori		NZ First
1996–1998	45th	Te Tai Tokerau	2	NZ First
1998–1999	Changed allegiance to:			Mauri Pacific
2005–2008	48th	List	29	National
2008–2011	49th	List	26	National
2011–present	50th	List	40	National

Henare first won election to Parliament in the 1993 elections as the New Zealand First candidate for the Northern Maori electorate. He defeated Bruce Gregory, the incumbent Labour Party member, a surprising result given Labour's traditional dominance in the Māori electorates. He became New Zealand First's second MP, joining Peters in the House. As such, Henare became New Zealand First's deputy leader.

Minister of Maori Affairs

In the 1996 elections, conducted under the new MMP electoral system, New Zealand First gained fifteen further MPs, and also made a clean sweep of the five Māori electorates. As deputy leader, Henare was second on New Zealand First's party list. He easily won re-election in his electorate, which had been renamed Te Tai Tokerau. When New Zealand First went into coalition with National, allowing a third term of the fourth National government, Henare joined the Cabinet, with his most prominent ministry that of Māori Affairs. He and the four other New Zealand First Māori MPs — Tuku Morgan, Rana Waitai, Tu Wyllie and Tuariki Delamere — became known as the Tight Five, an allusion to the five tight forwards in a rugby union team.

Parliamentary roles

Minister for Racing 16 December 1996-30 August 1998
Associate Minister for Sport, Fitness and Leisure 16 December 1996-2 August 1998
Minister of Maori Affairs 16 December 1996-10 December 1999
Associate Minister of Corrections 31 August 1998-10 December 1999
Associate Minister of Education 31 August 1998-10 December 1999
Associate Minister of Tertiary Education 21 June 1999-10 December 1999
Associate Spokesperson, Treaty of Waitangi Issues and Māori Affairs (Treaty Negotiations) 26 October 2005-1 December 2006
Associate Spokesperson, Education (Early Childhood) 26 October 2005-1 December 2006

Mauri Pacific

In August 1998, the coalition between National and New Zealand First started to become unstable, and internal tensions arose within New Zealand First itself. When Prime Minister Jenny Shipley sacked Peters from Cabinet on 14 August 1998, Peters pulled New Zealand First out of the coalition. However, Henare and several other New Zealand First MPs left the party and offered their support to National, allowing the government to maintain a slim majority. It later emerged that before departing, Henare had mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Peters. After a brief time as an independent, he banded together with four other MPs who had departed New Zealand First (including two other members of the Tight Five, Morgan and Waitai), and established the Mauri Pacific party with himself as the new party's leader. Late in the term, he was criticised for refusing to give Trevor Mallard a chance to speak on the use of the Māori language in Parliament, because Mallard wasn't Māori.

In the 1999 elections, Henare finished a distant third in his electorate and Mauri Pacific only gained 0.08% of the vote, forcing it out of Parliament.

National Party

In the 2002 elections, after Mauri Pacific's dissolution, he stood as a candidate for the National Party. He contested the Te Atatu electorate, and was ranked thirty-fifth on National's list. On election day, he finished second in Te Atatu and National did not win enough seats for him to return to Parliament.

Return to Parliament

In the 2005 election, he stood again as a National candidate, again contesting Te Atatu and holding the 29th slot on the party list. He expressed agreement with the controversial Orewa speech on race relations made by National Party leader Don Brash. Henare almost doubled his vote from the 2002 election result but still finished a distant second in Te Atatu, however National's gains in the election were enough to return him to Parliament as a list MP. He contested Te Atatu in 2008 and 2011, coming second and being returned as a list MP both times.

In February 2010, Henare's Employment Relations (Workers' Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill was drawn from the member's ballot. The bill passed its first reading and is currently before a select committee.

Controversies

On 25 October 2007, Henare had an altercation with Labour Party MP Trevor Mallard outside the debating chamber in Parliament House. It is understood he had made personal comments regarding the Labour MP's marriage breakup and subsequent new relationship.

During debate on the Auckland Local Government changes in August 2009, it emerged that Tau Henare had sent an email to his colleagues lobbying for the right to vote against part of the legislation, in particular whether there should be Maori seats on the new Auckland super city Council. In that email he made controversial remarks about the role of the National Party's coalition partner, the ACT Party, and during the reaction to the emails, made a number of challenging remarks about the co-leader of the Maori Party, another support party for his party's government.

Parliament of New Zealand
Preceded by Bruce Gregory	Member of Parliament for Northern Maori 1993–1996	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau 1996–1999	Succeeded by Dover Samuels
Political offices
Preceded by John Luxton	Minister of Māori Affairs 1996–1999	Succeeded by Dover Samuels
Party political offices
New political party	Leader of the Mauri Pacific Party 1998–1999	Party disbanded