Don Brash
Don Brash was Reserve Bank Governor from 1988 to 2002 and National Party leader from 2003 to 2006.
The following is written in Don’s capacity as Hobson’s Pledge trustee.
Te Pāti Māori has recently set out its election strategy and, in doing so, it has unintentionally revealed a profound constitutional reality: New Zealand no longer requires separate Māori seats to ensure Māori representation in parliament.
At its campaign launch, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer encouraged supporters to give their candidate vote to Te Pāti Māori, while directing their party vote elsewhere.
Why?
Under MMP, if a party wins more electorate seats than its share of the party vote would ordinarily entitle it to, those seats can create an overhang, increasing the size of parliament.
As Rawiri Waititi noted, many Māori candidates standing for Labour and other parties are already likely to enter parliament through their party lists.
That admission matters.
Māori representation in parliament is clearly no longer dependent on the existence of separate Māori electorates.
Instead, Te Pāti Māori is now openly seeking to use those electorates as part of an electoral strategy designed to hijack influence beyond what its share of the nationwide party vote would otherwise deliver.
In other words, Te Pāti Māori has made our argument for us.
Māori candidates can, and do, win general electorates. Māori candidates can, and do, enter parliament through party lists. Māori New Zealanders participate throughout our political system as candidates, MPs, ministers, party leaders and voters. Māori are succeeding, and this is a good thing. I might also add that seven of the 12 party leaders now in parliament are Māori, and every party in parliament has had at least one Māori leader except Labour.
So why, in 2026, do we continue to maintain electorates defined by ancestry?
Our electoral system should reflect enduring democratic principles of fairness, equality and equal citizenship. Every New Zealander should participate in our democracy on the same basis, regardless of ancestry.
It is time for New Zealanders to have their say.
Hobson’s Pledge has been calling for a binding referendum on the future of the Māori seats.
It is high time politicians stopped deciding this question for us and put it directly to the people.
If the Māori seats remain necessary and enjoy public support, their supporters should have nothing to fear from a referendum.
And if New Zealanders believe we have outgrown separate representation based on ancestry, they should have the democratic right to say so.
This article was published by Brash and Mitchell.
