The Māori Party is calling on more than 230,000 people on the Māori electoral rolls to dismiss any thought about giving their party vote to New Zealand First in this year’s general election.
“NZ First confirmed yesterday that they don’t have our backs as Māori, that they don’t care about the fight our old people fought so we could have a voice in the House that makes decisions which affect our lives,” says Māori Party president Tukoroirangi Morgan.
“A vote for NZ First is a wasted vote if you care about the mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga of our people and of Aotearoa.
“Abolishing the Māori seats will send Māori backwards and our party will defend those seats against NZ First’s populous Māori bashing, Don Brash-sounding efforts. Just like Labour, NZ First is showing us it too will throw Māori under the bus.
“It is so disheartening that Winston and the other Māori men in his party, who hail from the north where our country’s founding document was born, can turn their back on the Treaty, on the plight of the Māori people to seek meaningful change in the places that matter – for the sake of votes.
“It is vital that we as Māori stand together to fight this latest political attack on us and we can only do that by making it Māori in this year’s election.”
The Māori Party will continue to advocate for the Māori seats to remain and that all people who are identified as Māori at birth, go automatically onto the Māori electoral roll rather than the general roll (and that they be given the option to change if they want), says Mr Morgan.
There are currently 238,866 people registered across the seven Māori electoral rolls.
The Maori seats will be gone soon, if not this election cycle then soon after. Maori are well represented in parliament without having the maori seats. (And on most city councils also…not voted in)
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