Parata crowned

The PM has announced that Hekia Parata, the Nat's new Maori 'princess' is going to be a made man today. One good showing in a by-election - for a first term MP - and she's in Cabinet already. That's quite some promotion. It took Wong decades to get to the top table - Parata all of 2 years.

There will likely be a few wannabes with a few years more experience quietly fuming over this. Because the slot Parata occupies - the ethnic/other female position in Cabinet - isn't entirely merit-based (obviously - Pansy Wong) there's not a lot the ones who think they deserved a promotion can do about it. Everyone is aware that down that end of the Cabinet list there is a bit of window dressing and a necessary colouring of what is still very much a white old boys club. However Parata is a confident player and a competent pair of hands and the expectations of replacing the Nat's old Maori 'princess', Georgina Te Heu Heu, looks a certainty. I imagine list-dwelling Te Heu Heu will retire at the election, but at the moment there are three Maori women in the National Cabinet and that's an improvement on what we are used to.