Leaked Harawira email reveals viciousness of Internet Party-Mana split

A chain of emails leaked to 3News reveals the depth of a split between the Internet Party and Mana over a policy to decriminalise cannabis. 

Mr Harawira has long opposed drug and alcohol decriminalisation due to the damaging effects on particularly young Maori in general and in his electorate of Te Tai Tokerau — but dropped the objection to smooth the way for his party's alliance with the Internet Party. Interent Mana's policy is to decriminalise marijuana for medical use and personal use.

Although he's holding his nose and accepting the policy, a September 7 email shows he does not want it actively promoted, particularly at the expense of a core Mana policy.

It sees Mr Harawira rejecting a proof for a proposed Internet Mana ad called "Police no longer wasted on weed".

The recipients are Internet Party "brand manager" Andy Pickering and leader Laila Harre.

The Mana leader says:

Why am I seeing all this shit about weed and so f***** little about feed [Mana's Feed the Kids policy]... just because the Internet Party is keen on weed … and got all the money to spend on all this flash advertising shit is no reason why the same people who are also supposed to be working for Internet-Mana aren’t doing the same kind of package for Feed the Kids.

Get your priorities right, folks . My concern was that time and design effort had obviously gone into the cannabis law reform promotion, while I hadn’t seen the same level of promotion for one of Internet-Mana’s main campaign themes, Feed the Kids.

I will NOT be approving this WEED campaign.

Pull it now or I'll go public saying how disappointed I am our money's being spent on WEED not FEED.

The Mana leader also threatens to go media if the pro-decriminalisation ads are run, or not immediately pulled if it has already appeared.

Mr Harawira's email comes on the heels of comments by Internet Mana candidate Georgina Beyer about Kim Dotcom.

"His reasons for becoming involved in New Zealand politics in the way he has is one of retribution against people who he feels have slighted him," Ms Beyer said.

The latest polls have Internet Mana stalled on around 2%, well short of the 5% MMP threshold — meaning its hopes of getting MPs into Parliament depend on Mr Harawira holding off a challenge from Labour's Kelvin Davis in his Te Tai Tokerau seat.

For the Internet Party's all-powerful Executive Committee — which includes founder Kim Dotcom — it's a balancing act between appealing to the small army of youth who don't usually vote and keeping Mr Harawira happy. In this case, it chose to keep the Mana leader happy, and dropped the ad (Ms Harre told media that she and Mr Harawira had to both sign off on any given campaign, and that in this instance they both decided against running the ad).

Internet Mana watchers will also be reminded that this is a short term relationship.

The two parties' Memorandum of Understanding includes a clause for them to review their relationship within five weeks of the election.

The pair have pitched this clause as a mere procedural review.

Now it seems quite possible that if Mr Harawira holds his seat, he won't have a lot of time for any Internet Party MPs who would come into Parliament on his coat-tails. It's easy to see Mana taking advantage of the divorce clause, and cutting Internet Party MPs adrift in the Beehive. 

Internet Party founder Kim Dotcom likely won't have a problem with that outcome. And with the expenses of the election campaign behind him, it will be quite convenient for Mr Harawira, too.

But once again it will leave some voters wondering why National did not reform MMP, and the coat-tail rule, when it had the chance.