Dialogue: Maori seats quota runs risk of 'them and us'

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

It's a sure bet that the gaps will widen as the debate on separate electoral seats for Maori regains momentum.

Public submissions on the Bay of Plenty regional council's controversial Maori Constituency Empowering Bill closed a week ago, with an 11th-hour deluge of written opinions.

The Justice and Electoral select committee will decide soon whether to travel from Wellington to hear oral submissions.

Although the draft legislation is a local bill - which, if successful, will reserve two of the 11 Environment BOP seats for Maori - there are profound national implications.

The bill has had a long and bumpy ride to Parliament. There are no guarantees it will be passed.

And if it is successful, it will be too late for this year's local body elections in October.

Not only politicians but Maori themselves cannot agree on whether regional and district councils should be required to have a quota of Maori members.

The idea is hardly revolutionary. Central government has had Maori seats since 1867.

In 1989, the then Auckland Regional Authority introduced three seats for Maori, which were swept aside during the 1992 local government reforms.

More recently, the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 has stipulated that on the new District Health Boards there should be at least two Maori members.

In theory, separate seats will ensure that local authority membership fairly reflects the make-up of the communities they serve.

With close to one-third of the Bay of Plenty population being Maori, the regional council (Environment BOP) has been under pressure for several years to have a more balanced representation.

The first-past-the-post system was not throwing up many winning Maori candidates and the tangata whenua - who own nearly two million hectares of land in the Bay of Plenty - were having trouble getting their voices heard.

Elections were a hit and miss affair. The previous council had no Maori members, while the present lineup includes two, both elected on their own worth to serve all constituents.

But that does not mean they turn their backs on their heritage or deny their specialist knowledge on Maori issues.

Supported by more than 30 iwi groups, the bill reflects concern that Maori have not been involved enough in the environmental management of the region.

Maori say guaranteed representation on the council will help them keep an eye on the Bay of Plenty's natural resources and take a more active role in decision making.

Yet under the Resource Management Act, local iwi have to be consulted and Maori values considered in all issues.

Environment BOP has an iwi liaison officer and three Maori committees. Under the Treaty of Waitangi, full participation in governing New Zealand is assured.

Is it necessary to legislate further for special treatment?

Creation of a dual electoral system for councils could be a bureaucratic nightmare and the Bay of Plenty bill may well disenfranchise the very people it aims to help.

Residents who are on the parliamentary Maori roll for general elections will vote regionally only for Maori candidates and not for the other nominees in their areas.

Pakeha - and Maori on the general roll - will vote for the other nine regional councillors.

Of the Bay of Plenty's 224,000 population, an official count showed 43,6111 were registered on the Maori roll.

Although introducing Maori seats could be seen as an expansion of the ward system, it may be a recipe for more social dissension, polarising interests within communities.

Yes, Maori are a significant minority, but they are still only one group with special interests. Others - farmers, housewives, Greenpeace supporters - feel their concerns are just as legitimate.

Good councillors make informed decisions which should not be split into Maori and non-Maori issues. Race should not affect their ability to do the job they are elected to do. There is no room for a "them and us" mentality.

Certainly we need more Maori representation. But Maori are often not voting their own into power, whether because of apathy, an inherent distrust of the colonial Pakeha system, or the widespread belief that they do not stand a chance under first-past-the-post.

If Maori don't vote, you can't blame the system for that.

The single transferable vote option, giving electors a vote for second and third choices, would go further to address the representation imbalance than special ethnic seats.

Merit, not race, should decide who represents voters.