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I always thought the Māori electorate was a way to give Māori voting rights while acknowledging that they didn't have the same concept of land ownership as the
by disordinary 7y ago
I always thought the Māori electorate was a way to give Māori voting rights while acknowledging that they didn't have the same concept of land ownership as the colonists. At the time voting was tied to land ownership. The Māori electorate is tied to race and not land ownership like the general electorate was.
- pryce 7y agoFor reference, the Māori seats were created in 1867 during the period where much Māori land was confiscated by govt, provoking wars, and the property ownership requirement for voting in the general roll (basically for "white" people, which in NZ are now referred to as "Pakehā") was scrapped a little over a decade later in 1879; while for almost the next century Māori were forced to participate on only the Māori roll, determining only handful of available seats -effectively forcing them into underrepresentation - until 1976. If we were to say the intent was to "give Māori voting rights", I think it could be far more fairly characterized as "give Māori some voting rights but systematically ensure that this counts for substantially less than their non-Māori peers".