25th July 2023

Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono explains his party's new policy to return land wrongly taken from Maori. Then Mihingarangi Forbes talks to Professor Ella Henry and Shane Te Pou about Kiri Allan's resignation from cabinet and her decision not to stand for re-election.Watch the video version of the episode here.Today on Mata, the Green Party's Teanau Tuiono spells out how Hoki Whenua Mai would get more land back in Māori hands. Mihingarangi Forbes also speaks to panelists Professor Ella Henry and Shane Te Pou about Kiritapu Allan's decision not to stand at the next election, and how we might support MPs struggling with their mental health.Henry said a strategy in Parliament which allowed MPs to be given formalised support from the communities that had put them forward could help people struggling with mental health issues.Two years ago Kiritapu Allan was given a 13 percent chance of survival after a cervical cancer diagnosis. She underwent months of treatment and returned to work.Then recently she came under scrutiny from the opposition for alleged poor working relationships with some staff. It came after her community was devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle.As her relationship ended with her long-term partner, Allan recognised she was struggling with her mental health.The former justice minister resigned all her ministerial portfolios on Monday after being charged with careless driving and failing to accompany an officer following a car crash on Sunday night.Today Allan said she would not stand at this year's election, saying she had let her electorate down, her party down and all those who relied on her. Prof Henry said if Māori people were going to be put forward to Parliament something needed to happen at the community level in terms of whānau, hapū and iwi who should be prepared to wrap around them.Allan obviously had a break point that she was not able to cope with, she said."You don't know when you go into Parliament what your breaking point will be and so there's not only infrastructure needed around when that happens from within Parliament but also you know the broader community that she works with and she's a part of."True Māori leadership was being able to stand behind those people, "it's not who's out the front, it's who's out the back supporting the paepae", she said.A strategy in Parliament that allowed that support to happen would not just benefit Māori, Henry said…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details