David Farrar: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me

Stuff reports:

New Zealand First is campaigning for a referendum to be held on the future of Māori electorates.

Let’s do the time warp again!

But this isn’t the first time Peters has called for a referendum on the Māori seats.

Ahead of the 2017 election, he said a binding referendum on the policy was a “bottom line” policy for his party. Yet, his coalition agreement with the Jacinda Ardern-led Labour Party did not commit to such a referendum.

Not only wasn’t it in the coalition agreement, Labour sources all say NZ First didn’t even raise it during the negotiations.

I’d personally like to see a referendum on the Maori seats, but not just on abolition.

I think we should have a referendum on what the Royal Commission on the Electoral System recommended in 1986. The chapter is here. Extract below

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Parliament ignored this recommendation and unilaterally decided to keep the status quo. I say NZers should get to vote on the Royal Commission recommendation.

One thing I like about the recommendation is it would probably lead to several Maori parties, representing different views. There would probably be conservative Māori Party, a socialist Māori Party, an urban Māori Party, an Iwi rights party etc. And this is how it should be as Maori don;t have one monolithic view. Abolishing the seats in favour of no threshold for Maori parties would allow all Maori who wish to support Maori parties to have representation in Parliament. It would get rid of the arrogant notion that Te Pati Maori (for example) speaks for Maoridom. It would also mean no more seperate rolls.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders