Dr Michael Bassett: Maori Party thumbs its nose at Democracy

Have you noticed how contemptuous the Maori Party’s MPs are of democracy? After all, people who self-designate themselves as Maori are only 17% of the population. And amongst them, only a small proportion vote for the Maori Party. The brutal reality is that much higher numbers of Maori support Labour, while the Greens, Act, New Zealand First and National also had many Maori supporters at the last election.