Roger Childs: The seven Maori seats are undemocratic

Maori Party Has No Place in a Democratic Society

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Article 1, United Nations Declaration of Human Rights

The existence of the seven Maori seats in parliament is an element of inequality in our constitution which the next government should remove. We do not have special seats for Pacific Island people or citizens of Chinese, Indian, Korean, English or any other ethnicity.

Both Maori Party (Te Pāti Māori) MPs have recently shown their contempt for democracy: Rawiri Waititi describes it as “a tyranny of the majority”. An obvious reason for their attitude is that if the separate Maori electorates were abolished, their Party would win no seats in parliament.

When they were first set up on the second half of the 19^th century the four special seats were only intended to be a temporary expedient to provide representation for Maori people. This allocation was appropriate at the time, when most Maori lived in remote villages, but there is no longer any justification for this separatist policy.

Elements of inequality

Four Maori seats were set up by the Maori Representation Act back in 1867. It was well-intentioned, but not designed to last indefinitely. From the start there were elements of inequality.

·        On a population basis the Maori should have had at least 14 seats.

·        Whereas all Maori males could vote, only European males who owned, leased or rented property above a certain value had the franchise.

However, from 1893 all New Zealand men and women, except Chinese, were able to vote regardless of ethnicity or wealth.

1985 Commission recommends abolition

In 1967 Maori were allowed to stand in general seats, but it wasn’t until 1975 that National Party candidates Ben Couch and Rex Austin made the breakthrough in winning Wairarapa and Awarua respectively..

In the elections that followed more people with some Maori blood were elected in general seats. This prompted The Royal Commission on the Electoral System in its 1986 Report to recommend the abolition of separate representation.

But it didn’t happen. By 2002 the number of designated seats has increased to seven and there were 25 MPs in parliament with some Maori blood. Today there is no longer any justification for a special allocation for people who are in fact part-Maori and mainly descended from colonists.

Time for equality

People with even the smallest amount of Maori blood have the choice of being on the general or Maori roll. However, for the 2023 election there has been a major push for anyone calling themselves Maori to be on the latter.

The existing Maori electorates are huge: Te Tai Tonga covers the whole of the South Island, the Chatham Islands and parts of Wellington and Lower Hutt, making it impossible for the elected member, Rino Tirikatene, to regularly keep in contact with his constituents.

The needs of Maori - for housing, health, education, higher incomes, welfare, roads, public transport, libraries etc ... - are no different from any other New Zealanders. However, despite this truism, Maori have many separatist institutions, as well as 7 special parliamentary seats, that don’t exist for other citizens.

Well looked after

People with some Maori blood are well catered for by various governments departments and have their own Maori Affairs Ministry (Te Puni Kōkiri). Meanwhile the Waitangi Tribunal, using taxpayer money, has handsomely rewarded iwi, and Maori businesses and trusts which pay lower taxes than other commercial enterprises.

These special policies are in breach of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

Looking after the small minority who have some Maori blood

So does the Maori Party have a raison d'être? Definitely not, and without the separate seats would not have any elected representatives.

The Party website makes it abundantly clear that first and foremost they are interested in the future of those with Maori blood, and not the country where they live and have citizenship.

The Māori Party, is a political party, born of the dreams and aspirations of tangata whenua to achieve mana motuhake (self-determination) for whānau, hapū and iwi within their own land; to speak with a strong, independent and united voice; and to live according to kaupapa handed down by our ancestors. (Te Pāti Māori website)

There is no place for such a special interest party in New Zealand for Part-Maori people who are already generously catered for by the government, and courtesy the Waitangi Tribunal handouts have assets in the tens of billions.

Roger Childs is a retired teacher who taught History, Social Studies and Geography for 40 years.