William Wakatere Jackson is a New Zealand politician and former unionist, broadcaster and Urban Māori leader. He was a Member of Parliament for the Alliance from 1999 to 2002 and is currently a Labour Party MP, having been re-elected in 2017.

The Alliance was a left-wing political party in New Zealand. It was formed at the end of 1991 by the linking of four smaller parties. The Alliance positioned itself as a democratic socialist alternative to the centre-left New Zealand Labour Party. It was influential throughout the 1990s, but suffered a major setback after its founder and leader, Jim Anderton, left the party in 2002, taking with him several of its members of parliament (MPs). After the remaining MPs lost their seats in the 2002 general election, some commentators predicted the demise of the party.