Tariana Turia

Dame Tariana Turia (born 8 April 1944) is a former New Zealand politician.

Turia was born in 1944 to an American (probably Native American) father and Māori mother.

Her Māori roots are Ngāti Apa, Ngā Rauru, and Tūwharetoa iwi, among others.

She was married to George Turia, who has died.

They have 4 children, 2 whāngai, 28 grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Before entering politics, she had considerable involvement with a number of Māori organisations, working with Te Puni Kōkiri (the Ministry of Māori Development) and a number of Māori health providers.

She also had associations with the Te Kura Kaupapa and kohanga reo movements.

She was first elected to Parliament in 1996.

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.

From Labour's electoral victory in 1999, she served as Associate Minister of Māori Affairs, Associate Minister of Social Services and Employment, Associate Minister of Health, and Associate Minister of Housing.

In the 2002 election, however, she contested the Te Tai Hauāuru Māori electorate, and opted not to place herself on the party list at all.

Te Tai Hauāuru (roughly, the Māori 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.

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.

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 Hauāuru, she claimed that Labour's proposal amounted to an outright confiscation of Māori 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.

Turia gained considerable prominence during the foreshore and seabed controversy in 2004, and eventually broke with the Labour Party as a result.

She resigned from parliament, and successfully contested a by-election in her former electorate as a candidate of the newly formed Māori Party, of which became a co-leader.

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 Hauāuru, which Turia contested as a member of the new Māori Party that formed around her.

On the same day that Turia announced her resignation, Prime Minister Helen Clark sacked her from her ministerial posts.

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 Māori development, and says that she has unreasonably focused on a single issue.

Helen Clark said that Turia had shown "an astonishing lack of perspective".

Turia described the Te Tai Hauāuru 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.

Turia received 92.74% of the vote in the by-election, and resumed her seat in Parliament on 27 July 2004.

On 17 September 2005, the Māori Party contested the general election with electoral candidates in all seven of the Māori seats.

Turia was re-elected in Te Tai Hauāuru and that night three more Māori Party candidates won parliamentary seats, Pita Sharples (co-leader) in Tāmaki 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, Māori voice in parliament.

However, the Māori 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 Māori electorates mainly giving their party vote to the incumbent Labour government.

Support for the Māori Party in the 2008 general election increased with the party gaining an additional seat.

National won most seats overall, to form a minority government with support from the Māori Party as well as ACT New Zealand and United Future.

In return for Māori Party support in confidence and supply, John Key agreed to not abolish the Māori seats without the consent of Māori.

She retired from Parliament in 2014.