The Maori electorates could be relegated to the dustbin of history if New Zealand first leader Winston Peters gets his way. The party has called for a binding referendum where the option of abolishing the seats will decided by the general electorate. This could be "New Zealand’s Brexit" moment, where "politics as normal" undergoes a radical transformation in Aotearoa-New Zealand.
In this guest blog, John Moore argues for rejecting a reductionist stance on this debate, one that equates opposition to the Maori seats as inevitably being racist and anti-Maori. The fact that the campaign to abolish the seat is being championed by a Maori-led party, with organic links to Maori communities, points to the need for a more nuanced discussion on this question.
Maori and the Maori seats
Opposition to the Maori seats is not only the preserve of rednecks and racists. In fact, a discussion over the usefulness of the seats has being ongoing within Maori circles since the formation of the seats themselves.
New Zealand’s most important Maori historian Ranginui Walker argued that the Maori seats were meant to limit rather than enhance Maori power. This is a contested view, and other historians such as Michael King have argued that enfranchising Maori males through the institution of Maori seats was in some respects an enlightened move. But King did point out that had Maori seats been allocated on a population basis, Maori would have had fourteen to fifteen seats, rather than the four allocated to the indigenous population.
Maori are not a homogenous group with a unified political perspective. Therefore, it should be obvious that divisions exist within Te Ao Maori over what is the best way forward for championing a Maori political voice. However, many liberals, and certain Maori leaders, like to present a reductionist thesis - that a common “Maori perspective” and worldview does exist and that Maori are firmly attached to the idea of the need for separate electorates based on Maori identity. Yet, this just isn’t true.
Maori discontent within the Maori electorates
Maori on the Maori electoral roll have over the last two decades consistently shown their discontent with the politicians that have represented them within the Maori electorates. Since the 1990s, the Maori seats have been the most volatile in the country, with Maori electors showing themselves to have no time for seat warmers or ineffective Maori politicians who fail to deliver. After decades of Labour holding a monopoly within the Maori electorates, in 1996 Maori dumped their rather lacklustre Labour Maori MPs and delivered both the party vote and all the Maori electorates to New Zealand First.
After waka-jumping and perceived general ineffectiveness by the New Zealand First Maori electorate MPs, Maori initially went back to Labour. The formation of the Maori Party led to another revolt in the Maori seats, with a specific kaupapa-Maori political voice ascending. However, the perception that the Maori Party had become a voice for rich and elite Maori, rather than for working and poor Maori, led to support for the Maori Party collapsing. Labour again was the main beneficiary of this discontent, along with the leftwing and working-class focussed Mana Party.
A stronger Maori voice
There are now more Maori politicians than ever before, and Maori members of parliament have prominent and leading roles within the parties they represent, and within government itself. Whether these Maori MPs are doing a good job for most Maori is of course contested. However, the fact is that New Zealand politics has undergone a transformation - in terms of governments and government institutions feeling the need to be seen to addressing “Maori needs and aspirations”.
The continued existence of Maori seats has not been the main vehicle that has led to the rise of a strong Maori voice in parliament. Rather, New Zealand’s switch to a proportional electoral system has been the decisive mechanism for elevating Maori into the heart of power politics. With the advent of MMP, the number of MPs who identified as Maori rose significantly. And now all the parliamentary parties have strong and capable Maori leaders: including the leader of New Zealand First Winston Peters, the deputy prime minister and National MP Paula Bennet, and the co-leader of the Greens Metiria Turei. Even the co-leader of the Maori Party Marama Fox is in fact a list MP, and so does not represent a specific Maori electorate.
Te Ao Maori and the Maori electorates
The deep levels of disaffection shown by Maori for their representatives coming from the Maori electorates, shows that from a Maori point of view the Maori seats have continued to fail to produce representative Maori political leaders. And now with Maori leader and newly appointed New Zealand First candidate Shane Jones endorsing an antagonistic stance towards the Maori seats, we should expect a dynamic and polarising discussion to come from within Te Ao Maori itself on the relevance and usefulness of the continuation of separate Maori electorates.
