The Maori Seats

This is a topic which is sure to fire up emotions amongst many people with an interest in New Zealand. To some the Maori seats represent discrimination and the favouritism of the Maori people. Others see it symbolizing New Zealand’s strong belief in equality and the protection of Maori rights. Before I go into my position on this issue it is important to acknowledge the history behind the Maori seats.

When New Zealand first became democratic, like other newly democratic nations the right to vote was limited to land owning male adults. This presented an obstacle for Maori as despite owning considerable amounts of land because it was owned communally as opposed to individually this prevented them from being able to vote. Their lack of representation in parliament was having dire effects on their treatment, although I will go into this more soon. After struggling to gain some representation they were finally granted Maori seats in 1867. This was intended to be a temporary solution as it was expected that they would start owning their land individually thus making them applicable to vote in the general election. Initially the Maori were only given 4 seats in parliament; this was to be the case until MMP was introduced.

The Maori Seats have always generated controversy, right from the word go there were people protesting against them. Some claimed that this gave the Maori an unfair advantage, institutionalized racism etc. It was not until 1976 that they were able to choose which electorate roll they were enrolled in. At this point only 40% of those eligible chose to stay on the Maori roll. It was at this stage believed that all Maori would eventually make the switch to the general electorate (previously known as the pakeha electorate.)

Abolition was seriously considered again when the Royal Commission released their review on New Zealand’s electorate system in 1986. They proposed that the very existence of the Maori seats was causing Maori issues to be sidelined and marginalized. Drawing from this they were advocating their abolition. Under a more proportional electorate system it was believed the need for Maori seats would be gone. Due to intense opposition to this was Maori, the Maori seats did not end up getting abolished. They are now proportion to the number of Maori enrolled on the Maori electorate.