A referendum on the Māori seats

The proposal is that the public decide whether the Māori seats are effective, relevant and still needed. The document points to the recent referendum on local Māori wards as precedent, and is explicit that if the seats have enough support they could be retained. NZ First notes it has campaigned on this before and wants it implemented after the next election.

The central constitutional claim is that the 1986 Royal Commission on the electoral system concluded that MMP would produce a more representative Parliament and that the original justification for separate Māori seats would no longer exist.

The document says there is now a record number of Māori in Parliament and Cabinet, putting it at 27 percent of the House against what it describes as an often-claimed 17 percent of the population. It adds that between 1854 and 1978 only four Māori held a general seat, that the number has risen substantially since MMP, and that enrolment on the Māori roll has been falling and now sits at about half of enrolled Māori. From this it concludes that a separate franchise based on race has become irrelevant.

The document gives the conduct of the Māori Party over the past two years as part of its reasoning, saying they hold the majority of the Māori seats, do not turn up to Parliament and disregard the rules and processes, and concluding that the seats no longer serve their original purpose. These are the document’s characterisations; it offers no attendance, voting or participation data alongside them.