Govt Bill Will Suppress Māori Voters – Te Pati Māori

Te Pāti Māori are deeply concerned that the Electoral (District Boundaries) Amendment Bill will restrict the representation of all Māori roll voters until 2032 and beyond if it is not amended.

There have been enough voters on the Māori roll to warrant an 8th Māori seat since January 2025, but the electoral boundaries were calculated using outdated data from April 2024.

This Bill will delay the next boundary review from 2029 until 2032, fixing the number of Māori seats at 7 for the next two election cycles. It will also link all future boundary reviews to every second election cycle (every six years), rather than every five years, ensuring that electoral boundaries will continue to lag behind the growth of the Māori roll indefinitely.

“It is already an injustice that we will only have 7 Māori seats at the 2026 election when we have the numbers for 8 right now” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader and spokesperson for Electoral Justice, Rawiri Waititi

“It will be completely undemocratic for the government to restrict Māori representation until 2032 when we are projected to have the numbers for 9 or 10 Māori seats by then.”

“Not only will this Bill harm our people for the next six years, it will also ensure that we are underrepresented in all future elections.”

“The Māori roll is growing faster than ever, and 40% of the Māori population is under 18 years old.”

“If we allow the government to delay boundary reviews to once every six years, we will always be playing catch up”

“We should be reviewing these boundaries before every election; my first Member’s Bill (Right to Switch Rolls Freely Amendment Bill) would have made this change”

Te Pāti Māori is calling for:

• A boundary review to be conducted before the 2029 election

• A boundary review to be conducted before every subsequent election

“We need to ensure that tangata whenua have a proportionate representation for all future elections. This should be the bare minimum, anything less is voter suppression and a violation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi” concluded Waititi.

Submissions for the Electoral (District Boundaries) Amendment Bill close at 11:59pm this Wednesday, 15 April.