National eases stance on fate of Maori seats

Tariana Turia

National has backed away from making the abolition of the Maori seats a bottom line for forming a government.

The policy is a key plank of its "one law for all" philosophy and leader Don Brash last month marked it as one of the issues National could not compromise on.

He said this when discussing why it would be "very difficult" to work with the Maori Party.

But his deputy leader, Gerry Brownlee, now says that although National remains determined to abolish the seats, "clearly it's something that would be possible only if we were a majority government or we had a coalition partner that agreed with it".

"I don't think you can say in an election such a policy will be a bottom line," said Mr Brownlee.

"Clearly tax cuts are a bottom line [and] some of the changes we want to make in education are clearly pretty much bottom line."

The shift is likely to be a result of warnings by New Zealand First, rather than reflecting a desire to jump into bed with the Maori Party - although polls show the latter could yet hold the balance of power after the election.

NZ First is the party most likely to enable National to lead the next government.

After Dr Brash's comments, NZ First Maori affairs spokesman Pita Paraone warned of "civil unrest" if the move was forced on Maori voters. NZ First supports the removal of the seats, but would leave it to Maori to determine - a policy held by National until after the last election.

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia - who maintains her party could work with National - last week refused to take Dr Brash's comments seriously, labelling them "rhetoric".

Prime Minister Helen Clark meanwhile has used Mrs Turia's stand to warn Maori electorate voters that a vote for the Maori Party could cost them the seats. National has often argued Labour supports the seats only because it almost always wins them.

The prospect of a Maori Party sweep of the seats has sparked renewed fears within some Maori communities Labour might change its tune. But Helen Clark said this week that Labour had no plans to remove the seats and National's stance would be "very divisive".

Both the Green Party and the Maori Party believe the seats - like the general parliamentary seats - should be "entrenched".

If this were done, the support of 75 per cent of MPs would be required to abolish them.

At present it would take only a simple majority in the House.

When the entrenchment issue was considered by a parliamentary select committee in 2001, Labour supported the plan on the basis the seats should have the same level of protection as others.

A spokeswoman for Helen Clark said yesterday that Labour did not have a position on entrenchment. "There are no plans to change the status quo."

There are 201,086 Maori on the Maori roll and 163,735 on the general roll. Of first-time enrolments - mainly younger voters - 55 per cent are opting for the Maori roll.

Timeline

* Four Maori seats were established in 1867 as a temporary measure designed to last five years. Then, only men over 21 could vote - and only if they owned or leased land of a certain value. As most Maori held land communally, they were not entitled to vote.
* In 1975, when Maori were finally given a choice of enrolling on either the general or the Maori roll, each Maori electoral district represented almost twice the population of a general electorate - meaning the power of an individual Maori elector's vote was half that of other voters.
* The number of seats is now determined by enrolment numbers.
* The 1986 electoral system royal commission recommended the Maori seats be abolished, but Maori opposed the move.
* Maori already on a roll can opt to change only once every five years when the Maori electoral option is run. The next option runs next year.