By Roger Childs

It is very sad that the Legacy media will not cover many topics that affect our democracy and the interests of all New Zealanders. They seem terrified of commenting on Māori issues, presumably because they fear being called “racist.”  

Below is a letter to the editor I sent off a week ago. Do readers feel that it is unreasonable and insulting to people who call themselves Māori?

Scrap the undemocratic Māori seats

The Post has posed the question “Which electorate will be scrapped?” (Saturday February 6). It should be electorates, as the time has come to remove the undemocratic seven special seats for Māori. When the four special Māori seats were set up in the second half of the 19th century, they were only intended as a temporary expedient for representation of Māori people who mainly lived in remote villages. However there is no longer any justification for this separatist policy. 

In 1967 Maori were allowed to stand in general seats, but it wasn’t until 1975 that National Party candidates Ben Couch and Rex Austin made the breakthrough by winning Wairarapa and Awarua respectively.

In the elections that followed more people with some Māori blood were elected in general seats. This prompted The Royal Commission on the Electoral System in its 1986 Report to recommend the abolition of separate representation. But it didn’t happen. 

Instead by 2002 the number of designated Māori seats had increased to seven and today there are 33 MPs in parliament with some Māori blood. There is no longer any justification for a special allocation for people who are in fact part-Māori and descended from colonists and settlers, as well as early Polynesian immigrants.