Te Heuheu sticks with Maori roll despite policy

Georgina te Heuheu

National MP Georgina te Heuheu is on the Maori roll and has no plans to change, despite her party's opposition to the Maori seats.

Mrs te Heuheu told the Herald yesterday that she had been on the roll "since I was old enough to vote ... and I see no reason to change it".

She also suggested that others in the party disagreed with National's stance on the seats, adopted in 2003, which calls for them to be abolished.

The party's previous policy was that the seats should go, but that it should be up to Maori to determine when.

Mrs te Heuheu was a firm advocate of the earlier position. "We live in a democracy and the law allows Maori people to choose," she said. "I am with a party who are advocating for their abolition but until that happens I will be staying on the roll."

Asked if she supported retaining the Maori seats, she said: "Yeah, it's not a matter of support or anything else, I am Maori ... It is an option I can take. While the seats are there it is a right I feel I have got."

Politicians regularly had to advocate things they didn't agree with, she said. "The Maori seats are an opportunity to endorse my Maoriness."

National Party leader Don Brash said he was not worried by Mrs te Heuheu's choice.

"I respect her right to hold that position. She's clearly held it for a very long time, since long before there was any suggestion that these seats be abolished by the National Party."

Most of the caucus felt differently, Dr Brash said, "but I'm not surprised, nor am I dismayed" by her stance.

Fellow National list MP Tau Henare, a former MP for Te Tai Tokerau (northern Maori), said he had been on the roll of the Ikaroa-Rawhiti Maori electorate until recently, but changed to the general roll for "purely selfish reasons".

He was standing in a general seat and wanted to be able to vote for himself, he said.

He supported Mrs te Heuheu's decision "all the way", adding the Maori seats would eventually go, but not for several years.

The five-yearly Maori Electoral Option, during which Maori can change rolls, is currently running and is expected to increase the number of seats by one or two, up from seven.