Birth and early life

Kopu was raised in Opotiki

Opotiki

Opotiki is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. It houses the headquarters of the Opotiki District Council and comes under the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.-Population:* of the town: 4176 - Male 1,989, Female 2,187...

. Her family was not wealthy, and Kopu characterises her youth as containing "much hardship". In 1978, her family moved to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. In Australia, Kopu became involved with community programs aimed at drug users and prostitutes, something that she continued after arriving back in New Zealand in 1986. Kopu also had considerable involvement in rehabilitation

Rehabilitation (penology)

Rehabilitation means; To restore to useful life, as through therapy and education or To restore to good condition, operation, or capacity....

 programs for criminal

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

s.

Political life

In addition to this work, Kopu was also involved in various Māori

Maori culture

Māori culture is the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, an Eastern Polynesian people, and forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture. Within the Māori community, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the word Māoritanga is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori...

 cultural and educational programs. She quickly joined Mana Motuhake

Mana Motuhake

Mana Māori Motuhake was a Māori political party in New Zealand. The name is difficult to translate accurately, but essentially refers to Māori self-rule and self-determination — mana, in this context, can be understood as "authority" or "power", while motuhake can be understood as...

, a political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 based around promoting Māori interests and welfare. When Mana Motuhake joined with several other groups to establish the Alliance

Alliance (New Zealand political party)

The Alliance is a left-wing political party in New Zealand. It was formed in 1991, and was influential in the 1990s, but has since declined and has no representation in parliament. It suffered a major setback after Jim Anderton, the party's leader, left the party in 2002, taking several of the...

, Kopu became involved in the new organization. In the 1993 election

New Zealand general election, 1993

The 1993 New Zealand general election was held on 6 November 1993 to determine the composition of the 44th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the governing National Party, led by Jim Bolger, win a second term in office, despite a major swing back towards the Labour Party. The new Alliance and New...

, she stood as its candidate for the Eastern Māori, but was unsuccessful. In the 1996 election

New Zealand general election, 1996

The 1996 New Zealand general election was held on 12 October 1996 to determine the composition of the 45th New Zealand Parliament. It was notable for being the first election to be held under the new Mixed Member Proportional electoral system, and produced a parliament considerably more diverse...

, the first to be conducted under the new MMP system, Kopu contested the Te Tai Rawhiti seat, and was ranked twelfth on the Alliance list. While she did not win Te Tai Rawhiti, the Alliance received enough votes for Kopu to enter parliament as a list MP.

Kopu gradually came under increasing criticism, having been unemployed for nearly two decades prior to her lucrative appointment as an MP and the 'backdoor' manner in which she attained the position. This was compounded by her almost comical lack of participation - many Alliance colleagues complained that she was rarely seen in parliament, and believed that she was not doing sufficient work. Other causes of criticism stemmed from internal tensions between different factions of Mana Motuhake. Kopu resented the criticism, and voiced the possibility of leaving the Alliance.

In July 1997, Kopu finally resigned from her party. In a televised statement, she refused to talk in English and (in Maori) blamed racist discrimination for her predicament, going as far as stating "Apartheid is alive and well in New Zealand".

The issue was also of particular relevance due to her status as a list MP – she had been elected to parliament by virtue of her position on the Alliance list, not through any votes she had received personally, and as such, many believed that Kopu had no right to remain in parliament. Moreover, Kopu (like all other Alliance MPs) had previously signed a pledge affirming that if she ever left the party, she would resign from parliament. Kopu had, in fact, reaffirmed this pledge only a few days before she quit. The leader of the Alliance, Jim Anderton

Jim Anderton

James Patrick Anderton, usually known as Jim Anderton , is the leader of the Progressive Party, a New Zealand political party. He has served in Parliament since 1984. He served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002 and is currently also the sitting Father of the House, the longest...

, said that Kopu's actions "breach[ed] every standard of morality and ethics that are known".

Kopu defended her decision by saying that she was only doing what was best for Māori. Upon leaving the Alliance, she also received strong support from several other Māori MPs, notably Tau Henare

Tau Henare

Tau Henare is a New Zealand Māori parliamentarian. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1993 to 1999 and returned to Parliament in 2005. He has been involved with four political parties: Mana Motuhake, New Zealand First, Mauri Pacific and the National Party - representing three in...

 of the New Zealand First

New Zealand First

New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand that was founded in 1993, following party founder Winston Peters' resignation from the National Party in 1992...

 party. Henare, who had often criticised the Alliance's (and Mana Motuhake's) approach to Māori affairs, said that Kopu was welcome to join New Zealand First, although this was later rejected by other members of the party. Kopu quickly aligned herself with the governing coalition.

A hearing of parliament's privileges committee found that Kopu had not resigned from parliament, and that her pledge to the Alliance did not constitute a constructive resignation. The dispute led to the introduction of legislation, the Electoral Integrity Act (2001) preventing what became known as waka jumping.

Independence

After spending some time as an independent, Kopu decided to establish her own political party, Mana Wahine Te Ira Tangata

Mana Wahine Te Ira Tangata

Mana Wahine Te Ira Tangata was a small and short-lived political party in New Zealand. It was established by Alamein Kopu, a member of the New Zealand Parliament who had left her original party . After a short time as an independent MP, Kopu established Mana Wahine as her own party...

. When she launched the party in October 1997, Kopu claimed to have 6,000 members. The party was ostensibly based on promoting the welfare of Māori women. Many of Kopu's critics, however, claimed that the party was established primarily to ensure Kopu received more generous parliamentary funding. Mana Wahine became significant when, in 1999, the governing National Party

New Zealand National Party

The New Zealand National Party is the largest party in the New Zealand House of Representatives and in November 2008 formed a minority government with support from three minor parties.-Policies:...

 found itself reliant on Mana Wahine's support (along with that of various former New Zealand First MPs). National, left with a precarious majority when its coalition with New Zealand First collapsed, needed as much support as it could find, and managed to obtain Kopu's backing.

In the 1999 election

New Zealand general election, 1999

The 1999 New Zealand general election was held on 27 November 1999 to determine the composition of the 46th New Zealand Parliament. The governing National Party, led by Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, was defeated, being replaced by a coalition of Helen Clark's Labour Party and the smaller Alliance...

, Kopu stood as her party's candidate in the Waiariki electorate. Eleven other Mana Wahine candidates also stood. The party had also intended to submit a party list, but Kopu failed to submit it before the deadline. This eliminated the possibility of Kopu remaining in parliament as a list MP - she would need to win her electorate race in order to keep her seat. In the election, however, Kopu won only 1.7% of the vote in Waiariki, placing sixth. Moreover, the national vote for Mana Wahine candidates indicated that Kopu would not have been returned as a list MP in any case. Kopu lost her parliamentary seat.