Trust in political system lowest among Māori, Stats NZ survey finds

Almost half of Māori have low trust in Parliament and believe they have little influence over Government decision-making. Photo / File

Thirty per cent of the New Zealand population rated their trust in Parliament as high, and a further 9 per cent rated their trust very high, according to Statistics New Zealand.

But almost half of Māori (48 per cent) said they had low trust in Parliament.

On the other hand, 29 per cent of people in New Zealand rated their trust in Parliament as low, according to answers to the 2016 New Zealand General Social Survey's questions on political participation.

The two-yearly survey asks about 8,000 people a range of questions, including on voting, political discussion, signing petitions, as well as perceptions of trust and political influence.

It was carried out during 2016, when National was still in office.

At the time, one quarter of people rated the New Zealand public's influence on Government decision-making as high, and 4 per cent rated it as very high.

Roughly a third of people in the face-to-face survey felt they could not influence Government decisions.

Again, people identifying as Māori had a more pessimistic outlook than the general population, with 47 per cent feeling the public had little to no influence on Government decision-making.

Women (86 per cent) were more likely to vote than men (83 per cent) in the 2014 election. A previous Stats NZ release on voting also showed that women were likely to vote in the 2011 and 2008 elections.

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"New Zealand was the first country in the world in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections, and we celebrate that fact," labour markets and household senior manager Jason Attewell said.

"Perhaps this is a reason why women are consistently more likely to exercise their right to vote than men."

Most people overall follow politics in the media (71 per cent) or talk about their political views with others (61 per cent.) One quarter of people in New Zealand signed a petition, e-petition, or wrote a submission in 2016.