Matt McCarten on politics  Matt McCarten is a Herald on Sunday
political columnist  Matt McCarten: Sun sets on Maori Party as
voters look further left  Tariana Turia's retirement opens the
door for a new-look Maori Party. Photo / NZ Herald  Age catches
up with all of us. Tariana Turia bowed to that reality on
Thursday. Turia was supposed to retire from Parliament before
the last election, but with Hone Harawira chasing her party's
vote from one side and an emerging Labour Party from the other,
she felt she had no choice to see off the threat last year.  In
any event, the Maori Party lost the Tai Tonga seat to a
political neophyte and Turia and her remaining two colleagues
lost a massive chunk of her vote.  Harawira's new Mana Party won
almost the same number of votes as the Maori Party to establish
itself as the future alternative to Labour in the Maori seats.
In Waiariki, Mana president Annette Sykes came a respectable
second to incumbent Te Ururoa Flavell, making it Mana's priority
to take the seat at the