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Hone Harawira is all about triple constructions. Vini, vidi, vici; I came, I saw, I conquered, and so on. One suspects, however, he has taken his cue just as much from his mother, Muhammed Ali and Syd Jackson as from Julius Caesar. When Harawira got on the stage in front of the audience for the inaugural Otago University Vote Chat live stream, he was composed and calm, unlike the boisterous heckling we saw during the now infamous Don Brash run-in. Full of clarity, Harawira had his points and ran with them, easily outmatching Bryce Edwards' jitters.
 
But Harawira's visit was poorly timed, taking place during the mid-term break so few people were privy to his discussion of VSM, an outline of Mana Party policies and abuse of the Labour and National parties. Here’s a sample of some of the issues he elaborated on while talking to Critic's Georgie Fenwicke.
 
You talked about the power of the party line to subvert political talent and the personal politics of many of politicians in larger parties. What is your view on MMP?
When I talk to Maori, I say just think of it as More Maoris in Parliament and you will know how to vote. I don't want to sit down and try and explain the technicalities of MMP, I just want to support it.
 
Where you a supporter of it when it first came in?
Oh yeah. The strange thing is I have not relied on MMP myself. I won my seat in 2005, and I won it again in 2008 and then again at the by-election. I don't actually rely on MMP, but I have seen the change in MMP in my time and have watched it since it was genuinely the old white boys’ club to having a few brownies and now there are twenty members in parliament who are Maori. There are those from the Indian subcontinent and from Asia, from all over the place. I think that can only help us as a nation to have a broader spread of ethnicity and a broader range of thinking.
 
You have proposed to replace GST with what you have termed a Hone Heke Tax, which is a Financial Transactions Tax. Could you explain this to our readers?
According to the Treasury in, I think, the 2009/2010 financial year, New Zealand experienced $9.3 trillion in financial transactions. That is a lot of money. We don't see so much of it because a lot of that money is traded on the world financial markets with dollars floated here, there and everywhere, but $9.3 trillion. At the moment, our current tax regime brings in $55 billion. You wipe that out and you make one tax which is 1% on all financial transactions, which is $93 billion. You see what I mean. So ordinary people are only paying a 1% tax and the super rich who are paying nothing, if they actually paid on the amount of money that is flowing around the place, we double the amount of money the government could have. So when I talk about GST off food, more money for education, more money for housing, more money for employment the money is actually there, it’s just that the super rich do not have to pay it.
 
This is one of the policies you list when you talk about turning the economics of profit into an economics for people. What other actions fit into this plan?
Full employment. Helen Kelly who is the boss of the CTU (New Zealand Council of Trade Unions) told me the other day that the tax cuts to the super rich in 2010 were enough to put everyone on the unemployment benefit in 2011 into full employment at the minimum wage of $15 an hour by Christmas. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? The scary thing is that National is not going to do it, the scary thing is Labour won't.
 
You were sworn in once again to parliament as the member for Te Tai Tokerau where you pledged allegiance to the Treaty of Waitangi instead of the Queen...
Not instead of the Queen, just before her, she came last.
 
Fair enough. Why would you not attempt to legislate the change as well though?
In fact, when I finally got to take my seat on August 2 after I came in and finished off that pledge, the first thing I did when I sat down was I opened up my laptop and sent off an email to the Maori Party and the Greens to say why don't we get together to talk about how we can make this happen?
 
In terms of the Constitutional reform which is going to be undertaken in the next few months, do you think we should become a Republic?
I don't care either way. I just think the Treaty should be protected in our constitution. I don't want it to be tossed into legislation and out of legislation like it is at the moment. I want it to be above legislation so that all legislation has to adhere to it. I don't really care if that is under a parliamentary style government like we have or a republic like in the USA.
 
What level of priority are you giving to your attendance in parliament at the moment? Are you more concerned and getting out among the people?
I will always be more concerned about getting out and being among the people although I will attend to my obligations to parliament as required by law. I understand that there is a Voluntary Student Membership coming up next week.
 
And your views are?
I will oppose it as hard as I possibly can. In fact, my speech is being drafted for the Maori Students' Association and is being circulated amongst other student groups to see what they think. I am trying to maximise in my speech what students actually want from this bill, or what they want to be said about this bill. Student associations are the life blood of an independent student life. Without an independent student union, everything becomes very much the dictate of the structure, the cost of the course and the private entities who will then be encouraged to come in and provide services to students. Education becomes privatised. It is not consistent with the democratic process and I oppose it hugely.
 
What are some of the other key Mana Party policies you think will interest students?
The simplest ones are feed the children, decile one to decile five for starters and all children by 2013. The second one is free the students in terms of free education. If we want our young people to stay here, we do that by investing and paying for that education. That is the way they did it in the old days and it worked. Third one is full employment. If you have full employment you have the ability to change people's attitudes, to change the way they think about themselves, their family and those around them. We have the ability to do all that. And finally, a fairer tax regime so that everyone pays their share. If we have a fairer tax regime then feeding the children, free education and health for that matter are immediate possibilities.