The Maori Party unsurprisingly condemns the Business Roundtable calling for the abolition of the racially determined Maori seats, because without them, it may not be in Parliament.
It says "A recent Business Round Table report tries to rein in the resurgent political power of tangata whenua. It recommends abolishing the Maori seats out of pure self-interest, and definitely not for the good of Maori"
The Maori Party isn't self interested in defending the Maori seats? It never polls over the 5% threshold for party representation, and would fight to get maybe 1 or 2 electorates if the Maori seats were abolished (Maori votes changing the dimensions of general electorates like East Cape and Northland).
Parliament is not about representing races, it is about representing the views of individuals who vote. It does so in two ways, by representing communities defined by location and by representing parties that people want represented in Parliament. The Maori seats balkanise the country into Maori locations and non-Maori.
They are racist, they have no place in a modern 21st century liberal democracy, and no collectivised mumbo-jumbo can disguise that they are racist. The Maori Party wants to entrench this racism, rather than let Maori stand tall as people, as individuals with a shared national/ethnic identity, that don't need to be treated differently from everyone else. It could embrace the opportunity for electorates with high Maori populations to have Maori MPs, but no - it wins out of the current system, and will defend it to the end, and call anyone opposing it to be selfish and racist - which is so ironic.
3 comments:
Calling the Maori party racist is pretty rich coming from the likes of you. You idiots will never get rid of the Maori Party and I love it everytime Turiana and co make their "racist" comments. The reations from stuffed shirts is always so entertaining.
What I find rich is that the Maori Party is so precious about the Maori seats - why? Because they were originally founded to shut Maori out of the political process; back when they were founded, it was out of concern that with Maori getting more individual titles to land, they would soon outnumber European electors in many areas.
Therefore, I agree with you Liberty Scott in this instance, the Maori Party are racist, since they have clearly supported a policy that was designed as a racist construct
john-ston,
As a matter of fact, Maori seats were originally introduced to ENSURE Maori representation in Parliament. At the time, to vote you had to be a male land owner, and as all Maori land was held collectively, Maori were effectively excluded. The Maori seats were introduced to by-pass this requirement.
It would serve you well to learn some basic facts before commenting.
As an aside, if the Maori Party are so keen on implenting reccomendations of Royal Commisions, why aren't they pushing for the abolition of Maori seats as recommended by the 1986 report?
Mac
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