Tight Five
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Tuariki Delamere | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tuku Morgan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rana Waitai | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tu Wyllie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Tight Five was a nickname given to the five
party.Formation
New Zealand First had been founded in 1993 by
The party was the biggest beneficiary of New Zealand's switch to
The five Māori electorate MPs soon became known as the "Tight Five," named after the five rugby forwards who do most of the pushing in a scrum. Largely because of their huge electoral upset, they gained a very high profile in both New Zealand First and nationwide. However, they along with many other New Zealand First MPs attracted some controversy for their behavior. Morgan, in particular, faced criticism for reportedly misappropriating funds from a television network where he worked before entering Parliament.[1]
Disbandment
In December 1997, National's Jim Bolger was ousted as Prime Minister in a party room coup by Jenny Shipley. Tensions rapidly developed between the coalition partners and within New Zealand First itself. In 1998, Henare staged an unsuccessful party room coup of his own against Peters. Soon afterwards, Shipley sacked Peters from Cabinet. Peters immediately pulled New Zealand First out of the coalition, but eight New Zealand First MPs left the party instead and continued to support the National Government as independent MPs. Among these MPs were all of the Tight Five except Wyllie.
Henare, Waitai and Morgan eventually founded a new party, Mauri Pacific, led by Henare. Delamere remained an independent prior to the 1999 election, when he joined Te Tawharau, a small Māori party allied with the Mana Māori Movement.
In the 1999 election, all of the Tight Five were defeated, with only Delamere managing to even finish second. Henare is the only one who returned to parliament, joining the National Party and serving as a list MP from 2005 to 2014.
Other uses of the term
In 2020, five Labour Māori MPs were awarded ministerial positions inside Cabinet, and journalist Joel Maxwell referred to them as "Tight Five Two" and as a "Labour Tight Five".[7]
References
- ^ "'Close eye' on TV grant to Tuku Morgan". The New Zealand Herald. 29 April 2002. Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- Stuff New Zealand. Archivedfrom the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ Young, Audrey (19 August 2000). "National's waka nets Waitai". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ^ Trevett, Claire (1 December 2015). "Maori Party weigh in on Labour's reshuffle". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ Young, Audrey (16 July 2016). "Tukoroirangi Morgan elected as Maori Party president". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ Gardiner, Heta (11 December 2017). "Māori Party president resigns and calls for co-leaders to follow suit". Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ Maxwell, Joel (2 November 2020). "It's Tight Five Two: Māori MPs make splash inside new Labour Cabinet". Stuff. Archived from the original on 2 November 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.