We should all express a vote of thanks to Metiria Stanton Turei for her commentary in the ODT (19.4.24).
In her opinion piece on discrimination against Maori, she illustrates wonderfully well just how correct one of the world’s greatest thinkers, Tom Sowell, is with his observation "that people who have been placed in a privileged position for a period of time, see any withdrawal of privilege as discrimination" .
Barriers to Maori representation in local government had been dismantled by the previous government she breathlessly exclaims and have now been replaced by the old law which requires a council to hold a binding referendum if Maori wards are to be implemented. Please remind us all, Ms Stanton Turei — which particular barriers do you refer to that precludes Maori from being elected to local government?
Some Maori men were entitled to vote as early as 1853, and all Māori men in 1867. This was 12 years before all men of European heritage were allowed the vote. All voters in those days had to be men and over 21. Maori were given four wards as the Crown was very keen to reward the Māori tribes who fought alongside the Crown in the 1860s New Zealand Wars.
All Maori men were entitled to vote as communal landowners, unlike Europeans who needed (at that time) to hold land as individuals before being eligible to vote.
Fast forward to recent events. In 2021 the then Labour government decided to change the law that specifically required a referendum to allow for the creation of new Maori wards. Under Labour, Maori wards could be created as of right by a simple majority decision of councillors.
Labour, fully supported by the Greens, publicly notified the proposal that no referendum was to be necessary if councils alone thought it was appropriate to have Maori wards. So, in 2022 the law was changed to allow councils to unilaterally create Maori wards.
The new National-led government wants to revert back to a referendum process before any new exclusive wards can be created which most would see as democracy in action. It is that process to which Ms Stanton Turei strenuously objects.
She refers to the old law as racist; possibly because it treated all races equally. Her account of why the law was changed recently is disingenuous. The creation of new local government wards has always been based on population growth in an attempt to balance out the number of representatives deemed to be needed in a given area. The growth of Queenstown, Wanaka and Cromwell for example has been exponential compared to Balclutha, Clinton and Milton so it is reasonable to assume the number of existing representatives needs to be adjusted from time to time to reflect that reality.
In no way does the ethnicity of council members have any relevance in their ability to stand and be elected.
Dunedin has in recent times had successful mayors of Indian and Chinese heritage along with Pacific Island councillors who don’t seem to find the barriers that Ms Stanton Turei finds lurking in every corridor of local authorities. Having one vote does not appear to be a problem to any one with the exception of Ms Stanton Turei, who appears to forget that she was elected to Parliament under the Green banner and not the Maori Party who exclusively benefit from designated seats.
There is also the long-standing problem of what is euphemistically called consultation by councils or indeed by government concerning representation on councils and most other issues.
Consultation is now generally accepted as simply councils or political parties displaying their wares; it’s called window dressing with no price tag displayed.
Sometimes with the occasional dummy on display as well.
Ms Stanton Turei is entirely correct in her statement that; "legislation that intentionally discriminates a specific group of people based on their ethnicity is racist".
The same principle unequivocally applies also to privilege being entrenched, based on race.
— Gerrard Eckhoff is a former Otago regional councillor and Act New Zealand MP.
