A member of the audience at Monday evening's Meet the Candidates forum, former political journalist Neale McMillan, of Port Chalmers, asked candidates whether they supported the retention of Maori seats in Parliament and where they stood on separate Maori representation on local government councils.
Each party represented at the forum was asked to nominate one candidate to reply.
On the retention of Maori seats in Parliament, the most common response was they should remain for as long as those on the Maori roll wanted them.
This was the reply from candidates representing National, Labour, the Greens, United Future, Alliance, and Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.
Fewer candidates expressed support for Maori seats at city and district council tables. Those who did were the Greens and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.
The United Future candidate and Restore All Things in Christ's Robert Wansink said they had no comment on local government representation.
Mr Wansink also had no comment on Maori electorate seats.
Act New Zealand and New Zealand First candidates were opposed to Maori electorate seats and race-based representation at a local government level.
The only candidate to give an obviously personal view was Democrats for Social Credit's Jeremy Noble.
He was "pretty much opposed to both" because he believed people should only have a job if they were qualified to do it.