By Roger Childs
I want to help create a future where whanau, hapu and iwi are thriving socially, culturally and economically. –Te Puoho Katene
It’s well past the time to end special ethnic favours
Katene is the Labour’s candidate for the Te Haurauru seat in the 2026 election. He wants to see Maori thrive in the future but does he care about the over 80% of New Zealand’s population who have other ethnic backgrounds?
The special seats for Maori have long been unnecessary and New Zealand First have recognized this in proposing legislation to abolish them on February 18, 2026.
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure a binding referendum on the Māori seats is held in conjunction with the 2026 election.
If the bill is passed and the referendum confirms an end to the seats, New Zealand will become a truly democratic country. So why aren’t the mainstream media enthusiastically supporting New Zealand First’s initiative?
Can anyone justify having special seats for Maori?
No they can’t. All Maori have far less than 50% Polynesian blood and are in fact mainly descended from 19th century immigrants and colonists. They are New Zealand citizens and their needs — for housing, health, education, higher incomes, welfare, roads, public transport, libraries, entertainment, sports facilities etc … — are no different from any other New Zealanders. Like everyone else in the country they are descended from immigrants. However, despite these realities, Maori have many separatist institutions, as well as 7 special parliamentary seats, that don’t exist for other citizens.
No other ethnic groups – Samoan, Tongan, Korean, Chinese, Indian to name a few, don’t have special rights or recognition and don’t seek it. It they have citizenship they are looked after like all Kiwis.
The 1986 Commission recommended abolition
In 1967, Maori were allowed to stand in general seats, and in 1975, National Party candidates Ben Couch and Rex Austin made the breakthrough in winning Wairarapa and Awarua respectively.
In the elections that followed more people with some Maori 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. By 2002 the number of designated seats has increased to seven and there were 25 MPs in parliament with some Maori blood. Today there is no longer any justification for a special allocation for people who are in fact part-Maori and mainly descended from colonists.
Time for equality
People with even the smallest amount of Maori blood have the choice of being on the general or Maori roll. However, for the 2023 election there has been a major push for anyone calling themselves Maori to be on the latter.
The existing Maori electorates are huge: Te Tai Tonga covers the whole of the South Island, the Chatham Islands and parts of Wellington and Lower Hutt, making it impossible for the elected member, Rino Tirikatene, to regularly keep in contact with his constituents.
Well looked after
People with some Maori blood are well catered for by various governments departments and have their own Maori Affairs Ministry (Te Puni Kōkiri). Meanwhile the Waitangi Tribunal, using taxpayer money, has handsomely rewarded iwi, and Maori businesses and trusts which pay lower taxes than other commercial enterprises.
These special policies are in breach of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Article 1 states All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Not in New Zealand, if you have any Maori blood you are special.
That needs to change and the New Zealand Party’s proposal to allow the people to decide in a referendum is the way to go. It the citizenry decides “no more Maori seats” we become a democracy in which all people are equal regardless of their ethnic origins.
See also this piece on the Good Oil