Hobson’s Pledge trustee Don Brash is calling on Prime
Minister Christopher Luxon to be open and transparent about
the National Party’s official position on Māori
electorates, following the selection of Coral Raukawa as the
party’s candidate for Te Tai Hauāuru.
The decision to
run a candidate in a Māori electorate raises serious
questions about the National Party’s core principles,
especially “equal citizenship and equal opportunity”. It
has also exposed a glaring ideological misalignment between
the party and its newly selected candidate.
A
Contradiction in Principles
Ms Raukawa currently sits
as a Māori ward councillor on the Rangitīkei District
Council and, when asked about the Māori ward referenda,
told media, “I believe it should have been up to us to
decide as a council whether we wanted it”. This creates a
direct conflict with the broader National-led coalition’s
stance, which has actively worked to restore local democracy
by mandating referenda on the establishment of Māori
wards.
“Māori wards and central government race-based
seats should be a relic of the past. Māori electorates were
introduced in 1867 at a time when only men who owned
property got a vote. Because at that time, most Maori
property was communally owned, almost no Maori got a vote.
Arguably, Māori electorates should have gone in 1893, when
all adults, men and women, got a vote. And they certainly
should have gone when we adopted MMP in 1996, as the Royal
Commission on the Electoral System had recommended 10 years
earlier.”
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“Historically, three previous National Party
leaders – Bill English, Don Brash, and John Key – all
formally pledged or campaigned to scrap the Māori
electorates during their leadership tenures.”
Māori
Political Success Proves Seats Are Redundant
“The
reality of modern New Zealand politics completely undermines
the argument that separate race-based seats are necessary
for representation,” says Don Brash.
“In the 2023
General Election, more than 25% of elected MPs, across all 6
parliamentary parties, in Government and Opposition,
identified as Māori—a proportion that significantly
exceeds the Māori population at large. Furthermore,
currently 7 of 12 party leaders are Māori.”
“Māori
successfully win seats and lead parties on their own merits
across the political spectrum,” Brash states. “The crutch of
separate electorates is not only patronising, it is also
entirely redundant in a modern democracy.”
A Call for
Electoral Accountability
Hobson’s Pledge is
formally calling on Christopher Luxon to:
Explain why
the National Party is validating the existence of separate
Māori seats by actively contesting them.
Publicly
state National’s long-term policy regarding the future of
Māori electorates.
Let the public decide by holding a
binding national referendum on the future of Māori
seats.
“If the National Party truly believes in equal
citizenship and one law for all, it cannot continue to
compromise on separate representation,” says Brash. “It is
time to give New Zealanders a direct say on whether we
continue down a path of division, or finally embrace a
single electoral system for all
voters.”
