Created in 1867 as a temporary bridge for Maori men excluded by the property qualification, the seats lost all justification the moment every adult New Zealander gained the vote on equal terms.
Parliament, addicted to patronage, kept them. MMP promised genuine proportionality—every vote counting without gerrymandered fiefdoms—yet the seats survived, sustained by a separate Maori roll and the rule that lets a party retain list seats after winning just one electorate. This is not democracy; it is a state-subsidised racial quota.
The result is balkanisation: the deliberate fracturing of the nation into rival ethnic enclaves. Instead of one sovereign people bound by shared citizenship, we get parallel systems—separate electorates, co-governance boards, race-based funding, and creeping demands for separate law. Trust collapses as politics becomes a zero-sum contest between ancestral tribes rather than a contest of ideas for the common good.
These seats institutionalise the deeper poison of group rights. Individual liberty demands that the state treat citizens as sovereign individuals, equal before the law, with rights to life, liberty and property irrespective of bloodline. Group rights invert this: they allocate power, resources and outcomes by ancestry, turning the state into an ethnic arbiter. That is incompatible with freedom. It replaces the rule of law with the rule of the tribe and breeds clients who demand patronage instead of citizens who demand justice.
We now have unelected chiefs with big budgets and vast power not by merit but through Maori funding and the patronage and corruption of the body politic that is the inevitable result. Newly minted chiefs get to decide which projects get the go ahead and what policies make it into law.
Te Pati Maori exists solely because of these seats. Its MPs are not statesmen building a united nation; they are race hustlers whose business model is to inflame division, stoke extremism, and harvest resentment from a captive, race-defined electorate. Race-baiting is not a bug—it is the predictable feature when survival depends on keeping the ethnic pot boiling.
New Zealand was founded on the liberal promise of equal citizenship under one law for all. The Maori seats mock that promise. Abolish them. Place every voter on the general roll. Force every candidate to appeal to New Zealanders irrespective of their ancestry.
Equal rights or ethnic division—there is no third way. The time for deference and soft talk is finished. Scrap the seats.
The result is balkanisation: the deliberate fracturing of the nation into rival ethnic enclaves. Instead of one sovereign people bound by shared citizenship, we get parallel systems—separate electorates, co-governance boards, race-based funding, and creeping demands for separate law. Trust collapses as politics becomes a zero-sum contest between ancestral tribes rather than a contest of ideas for the common good.
These seats institutionalise the deeper poison of group rights. Individual liberty demands that the state treat citizens as sovereign individuals, equal before the law, with rights to life, liberty and property irrespective of bloodline. Group rights invert this: they allocate power, resources and outcomes by ancestry, turning the state into an ethnic arbiter. That is incompatible with freedom. It replaces the rule of law with the rule of the tribe and breeds clients who demand patronage instead of citizens who demand justice.
We now have unelected chiefs with big budgets and vast power not by merit but through Maori funding and the patronage and corruption of the body politic that is the inevitable result. Newly minted chiefs get to decide which projects get the go ahead and what policies make it into law.
Te Pati Maori exists solely because of these seats. Its MPs are not statesmen building a united nation; they are race hustlers whose business model is to inflame division, stoke extremism, and harvest resentment from a captive, race-defined electorate. Race-baiting is not a bug—it is the predictable feature when survival depends on keeping the ethnic pot boiling.
New Zealand was founded on the liberal promise of equal citizenship under one law for all. The Maori seats mock that promise. Abolish them. Place every voter on the general roll. Force every candidate to appeal to New Zealanders irrespective of their ancestry.
Equal rights or ethnic division—there is no third way. The time for deference and soft talk is finished. Scrap the seats.
Rodney Hide is a former Minister and leader of the ACT Party. This article was sourced from HERE.
10 comments:
Of course they should go, but it's not going to happen. NZ chooses ethnic division over equal rights with Maori being on top. And with every generation brainwashed by the propaganda in our state schools the situation will get worse.
Perhaps WP could promise to make this a coalition condition for any government he might be involved with later this year?
Mr Peters' automatic enactment Maori seats referendum in conjunction with the election would probably do this, but I do not know what has happened to it.
Agree absolutely, Rodney.
A truer contribution could not be written , typed or spoken for real New Zealand's future.
Msm should present regular articles and editorials along these lines but instead we get endless pro maori propoganda
There’s nothing racist about them at all. One voter one vote. This guy is a dinosaur who used to have a few principles, but he’s clearly been told he has to get on the division train to help amplify the dog whistling being led by Seymour in the run up to the election.
You don’t need to be cynical to see that the current government has botched the economy and is all out of ideas. We’ll see more attempts at distraction from their failure in the coming months. Buckle up, folks!
Hear hear!
Here is Mr Peters’ Draft Māori Seats Referendum Bill for consultation. As I understand it, the binding referendum would be held in conjunction with the election and if “No” wins, Part 3 automatically comes into force and amends the Electoral Act.
https://bills.parliament.nz/v/1/ed15d4d9-c5fe-4da8-7540-08de6e970f4a?lang=en
Mr Peters has said:
“We have recently announced our intention to campaign on a binding referendum on the future of the Māori seats - we are saying we have legislation ready to go right now.
We don’t have to wait until after the next election. If we have the support of other parties in parliament, we can get this referendum completed at no extra cost, and no wasted time, if we hold it in conjunction with the general election in November.”
Luxon is too scared to even mention the Maori seats let alone do anything about them. That might upset the people who will never in a million years votes for him or National.
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