Labour MP Willie Jackson made a hurtling return to parliament today after his 15 year hiatus, by using his speech time to pay homage to Maori voters, lay into the National Party, and to briefly acknowledge the departed Maori Party.
Mr Jackson was formally an MP for the Alliance Party until 2002, and has returned as an MP for the Labour Party.
"It's been 15 years since I've had a korero [talk] in the House... so it's appropriate I salute our Maori caucus," he said.
"So I want to thank the Maori nation for supporting our Maori Caucus, the true Maori Party for this parliament."
He said he was proud of what the Maori MPs in parliament have achieved, making mentions of Peeni Henare, Kiri Allan and Willow Jean Prime.
"We're adding something to the House."
Mr Jackson said the reason the government "cleaned up" in the election, securing all seven Maori seats, was due to concentrating on issues impacting Maori.
"We had a National Party supporting nonsense."
"We concentrated on the issues for our people, housing health, education... not gobbledegook stuff like tino rangatiratanga nonsense that was being spouted out. We concentrated on the issues."
He acknowledged the Maori Party for "at least trying to advance kaupapa Maori every day".
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