Tapu Misa: Parliamentary colour in quantity, but quality in doubt

You might think, looking at the composition of the new Parliament, that MMP has delivered us a group of representatives that pretty well matches our cultural makeup.

And yes, on the face of it Parliament does look a bit more tinted this week. National's Pansy Wong now has the company of two new Asian MPs, which puts them on a par with Labour's three Pacific MPs, who still have each other despite the loss of Arthur Anae, one of the casualties of National's election horribilis.

That's not quite up to the proportion in the general population, but it's more than would ever have been possible under the old first-past-the-post system.

You might think, too, that Maori have been spectacularly successful this election, what with 21 MPs claiming some Maori whakapapa. If you were Richard Prebble, you might even say - as he did during the election campaign - that as Maori are now clearly overrepresented in Parliament, it is time to dump those special Maori seats.

And certainly, if you're one of those who go along with that famous Dame Edna poster - Minorities Welcome. Up to a Point - you'd be agreeing with him right about now.

But numbers aren't everything, as everyone knows, and quantity seldom adds up to quality.

That count - which varies, by the way, depending on who is doing it - seems to include a lot of people who appear to have only a passing acquaintance with their Maori roots.

Of the 16 who were in the last Parliament, just over half could have been said to have been working on behalf of Maori. And a few might even be said to have been working against Maori.

Matt McCarten, the president of the terminally ill Alliance, is one of those who says that having 20-plus Maori MPs is meaningless when so few of them are likely to be pro-Maori voices.

He sees the election result as a setback for Maori, partly because of Winston Peters, who, he says, has taken the traditional position of a Maori politician - whacking himself as a way of appealing to a wider audience.

And that will harm Maori interests in the next three years.

It's possible, of course, that Mr McCarten is still feeling sour over the election results, but he does have a point. Mr Peters' record - he has described Maori as the white man's burden - doesn't inspire confidence in those hoping for some serious debate on critical issues such as tino rangatiratanga, the so-called grievance treaty industry and Maori broadcasting.

During the election campaign Mr Peters made the point that his candidates didn't call themselves Maori, but New Zealanders. He, too, wants to abolish the Maori seats because he sees them as special treatment for Maori, which he opposes.

Maori, like Maori Television Service chairman Derek Fox, fret that Mr Peters and his cohorts won't just be erecting roadblocks against Maori initiatives, but that they will have the capacity to subdue sympathetic but faint-hearted Pakeha who would otherwise be supportive.

Witness Mr Peters' taunt to John Campbell during a TV3 leaders' debate: "You wouldn't know a Maori if you fell over one."

How is a Pakeha to know who to listen to, anyway? I once asked veteran Maori politician Matiu Rata how we should define Maori for the purposes of treaty settlements.

Mr Rata, who founded Mana Motuhake and was instrumental in the formation of the Waitangi Tribunal, said a Maori was anyone who thought of themselves as Maori.

He wasn't too fussed about the correct quotient of Maori blood. Heck, if there were Pakeha around who identified as Maori, they were welcome to join the queue of those hoping to benefit from the treaty payouts. (And, indirectly, some have. A lot of Pakeha lawyers, accountants, advisers and historians have done nicely out of what Mr Peters calls the grievance industry.)

Mr Rata might also have said that having the requisite whakapapa is no guarantee of cultural credibility. Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, while seen by many Pakeha as a Maori spokeswoman, was brought up to be more Pakeha than Maori and to reject much that her mother's culture offered. She wasn't taught the language as a youngster, and didn't step onto a marae until she was in her 20s.

Which brings us back to the new Parliament. The dearth of effective, well-informed and articulate Maori politicians can't be laid at Mr Peters' door.

Many Maori will be hoping there will be some in the new crop prepared to go out and bat for Maori interests. Two of the best from the last Parliament, Sandra Lee and Willie Jackson, have gone. Tariana Turia and John Tamihere remain, but haven't always presented a unified front.

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia, though very good at getting around to hui and seeing his constituents, was deafeningly silent on most Maori issues. He'll have to speak up this time round.

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