WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Why Winston’s Māori Electorate Referendum is so dangerous
Matua Winston Peters has done a Seymour and called for a highly controversial and divisive race referendum, this time on the Māori Electorates.
Matua Winston, who has run in Māori Electorates and has clean swept them for NZ First in the past, is now against the Māori Electorates, which seems like he’s pulling the Māori Electorate ladder up after him.
How very on brand for a Boomer.
Matua Winston says there are three reasons we need to get rid of the Maori Electorates.
The first is that fewer Māori are using them.
The second is that the majority of Māori aren’t on the Māori Roll.
And his third reason for scrapping the Māori Electorates is that te Pati Māori MPs have dishonoured themselves in their conduct and so the Māori Electorates should be scrapped.
Firstly, Matua Winston is wrong. 16 000 more Māori have signed up to the Māori Roll since the last election, so he is factually wrong on his first reason.
Secondly, Matua Winston is wrong again. 51% of Māori are on the Māori Roll.
Thirdly, whatever you think of Te Pati Māori’s MP behaviour, that doesn’t in any way shape justify removing the Māori Electorates, in what will be a vicious race referendum debate as easily toxic as Seymour’s Treaty Principles debacle.
So two of the reasons why we should scrap the Māori Electorates are simply wrong and the third is highly subjective.
When challenged on the disinformation he’s spreading, Matua Winston makes an esoteric argument that those numbers are false because of a 1970s decision to allow anyone who defines themselves as Māori can be Māori.
I think when that is your defence for being wrong about the numbers, that a 1970s definition is the problem, you’ve not only lost the argument, you’ve looked incredibly foolish doing so.
Matua Winston will talk a lot about Democracy, but what he is really arguing for is Majoritarianism which is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on who to eat for lunch.
Aotearoa New Zealand should embrace, celebrate and rejoice the uniqueness of our Māori Electorates as a genuine step towards recognising the power imbalance of colonisation and its impact on Māori sovereignty (which was never signed away).
Western Democratic Values are built upon recognising the power dynamics between the Crown and the Parliament, the Parliament and the people, having Māori Electorates is our egalitarianism and true focus on the real values of Universal Suffrage Democracy, it’s not a sacrificial lamb for Matua Winston’s culture war ramblings!
The idea that the majority can decide the political rights of the indigenous minority is the ugliest of politics and it should be righteously condemned, not celebrated!
