Luxon wants vote on MMP but remains silent on Māori seats

Summarised by Centrist

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says New Zealanders should get another vote on whether to retain MMP, but National has made no similar commitment on the future of the Māori electorates.

Luxon said a re-elected National government would consider an MMP referendum, arguing it was reasonable to ask whether voters still supported the system.

Luxon later doubled down, telling Stuff: “It will be our policy.” However, senior ministers Chris Bishop and Mark Mitchell insisted an MMP referendum was not National Party policy. 

The renewed focus on MMP comes as the parliamentary arithmetic tightens. A new Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll has National on 31 per cent, Labour on 27.8 per cent and Opportunity on 6.1 per cent, enough to enter Parliament. With National ruling out working with Opportunity, National, ACT and NZ First would hold government by the narrowest margin, with 61 seats against the opposition bloc’s 59.

His comments came as Hobson’s Pledge launched a petition seeking a binding referendum on abolishing the Māori seats.

Former National and ACT leader Don Brash told The Platform the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System recommended abolishing the seats if MMP was introduced. MMP took effect in 1996, but the Māori electorates remained.

Brash said Māori were now represented throughout Parliament through general electorates and party lists. Every parliamentary party had Māori MPs, he said, while seven of the 12 party leaders and deputies were Māori.

“The logic of having Māori electorates is simply gone,” Brash said.

He blamed National’s reluctance to act, noting that Bill English promised their abolition in 2003, Brash campaigned on the issue in 2005, and John Key took the same policy into the 2008 election.

Brash said National’s decision to keep standing candidates in Māori electorates suggested the party was divided and had abandoned its former commitment.

He said ACT and New Zealand First appeared to favour abolishing the seats, with NZ First campaigning for a referendum.

Read more on NewstalkZB here and here, and RNZ  and Stuff