Brash: Maori seats referendum the defining issue

It looks as if whether to have a referendum on the Maori electorates will become a defining issue in the post-election negotiations, Hobson’s Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has said having such a referendum is one of his “bottom-lines”.

Jacinda Ardern said this morning that under no circumstances will she agree to such a referendum, and Duncan Garner (on Three’s AM Show) said that agreeing to such a referendum would be “cutting [Labour’s] own throat”, Dr Brash said.

So, IF Mr Peters remains adamant that a referendum is one of his bottom-lines, and IF Jacinda Ardern remains firm, then we will have a National-NZ First Government, Dr Brash said.

But what are the merits of the case against separate Maori electorates?

“There are certainly plenty of Maori in Parliament now – 29 out of 120, or almost a quarter of the total Parliament, only seven of them elected in Maori electorates,” Dr Brash said.

“The Deputy Leader of both National and Labour, the Leader and Deputy Leader of NZ First, and even the Leader of ACT all have Maori ancestors and would be entitled to enroll on the Maori roll – and none of them needed a Maori electorate to get them into Parliament,” he said.

Maori social statistics suggest that there is much wrong with the situation of too many Maori, Dr Brash said.

“That just shows that having separate Maori electorates over the last 150 years has done little to improve that situation,” he said.

Duncan Garner suggested today that having a referendum on the Maori electorates would invite a “hikoi from hell”, Dr Brash said.

“But when a veteran Maori politician (Winston Peters) is simply asking the public whether or not they should be retained, that should surely be applauded, not something warranting any kind of hikoi, let alone one from hell”, Dr Brash said.

ENDS

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