Pānui - Māori policy commentary

Enter your keyword

Tags: ACT Party

Māori Electorates – Party Vote: omnibus excerpt

 From week ending December 2, 2011

The General Election has returned the National Party to Government with 48% of the Party Vote, and a total of 60 seats out of 121[1].  The National Party will be entering confidence and supply agreements with the ACT Party (1 seat) and the United Future Party (1 seat), to secure a majority of votes in parliament.  The National Party is also likely to enter into a further conference and supply agreement with the Māori Party, (discussed further below).

Māori electorate voting patterns, however, were an inverse to those of people on the general roll.  As shown in the tables below, with their party vote, people on the Māori electoral roll voted most often voted for parties on the political left, particularly the Labour Party.  This analysis shows that the newly forming National Government is not well supported by Māori electorate voters.

Comparison of Māori and General party voting patterns Māori seats – party votes All seats – party votes
Labour Party 40% 27%
Māori Party 15% 1%
Mana Party 12% 1%
Green Party 10% 11%
NZ First Party 10% 7%
National Party 8% 48%
Other parties 4% 5%

  In our analysis, salient aspects of party voting in Māori electorates are:

  • four of ten of these voters supported the Labour Party, 40%, and less than one in ten supported the National Party, 8%;
  • in 2008 the Māori Party received 28% of these votes, but in 2011 this fell thirteen percentile points to 15% – while the ‘break-away’ Mana Party received 12% of party votes in these seats in this election;
  • the Green Party vote, 10%, is consistent with the proportion received from the general electoral roll, 11%;
  • voters on this roll are more likely to vote for the New Zealand First Party, 10%, than their counterparts the general electoral roll, 7%; and
  • the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, with 1,291 votes received over 600 percent more support from these voters than the ACT Party.

 

[1] Results remain provisional and have not yet been confirmed by the Electoral Commission.

Posted by admin

Act Party: manifesto commitments:omnibus excerpt

ACT Party – Māori focused matters

The ACT Party has nineteen policy statements, and Māori interests are captured almost exclusively in one of these, entitled the ‘One Law for All’ policy proposal.  (The only other place the word Māori appears is under Welfare where ACT notes the high numbers of Māori on welfare.)  The ‘One Law for All’ proposal is, as the name suggests, a proposition that Māori-focused representative interventions are not required, and should be abolished from legislative frameworks at all levels.  For example, removal of Māori electorate seats in parliament, no Māori-wards at local government level, removal of Māori consultation requirements from the Resource Management Act, etc.  

Although not accepting Māori-specific representative mechanisms, the ACT Party does acknowledge the existence of Treaty of Waitangi grievances, and supports the acceleration of Treaty compensation processes.  (We note other parties tend to speak of Treaty settlements not ‘compensation’ per se, in recognition of the low value of settlements relative to the scale of the grievances, and value of assets lost through Treaty breaches.)

The ACT Party notes significant disparities between Māori and non-Māori in the social sector, and suggests the solutions to these are increased choice for Māori, in order to access better services.  Increased choice, however, does not extend to Māori language in schools, which Party Leader, Don Brash, yesterday dismissed as a policy option.

In our assessment, the ACT Party policy positions on Māori interests are reflective of two bygone eras.  First, limited Māori-specific input on social representative structures is reflective of the 1950s and 1960s when Māori had little input in macro policy developments, such as urban planning.  Subscribers familiar with Māori history will be aware this was a period of intensive (and facilitated) Māori urbanisation, and decision-makers (non-Māori) deliberately elected a Māori ‘pepper-popping’ housing approach.  This period is now acknowledged as a central disconnecting point for Māori communities, contributing significantly to the breakdown of inter-generational Māori language transmission, and a loss of iwi and marae identity amongst Māori at that time.  Given those types of historic negative outcomes, it is difficult to see any usefulness for Māori in foregoing representative models of decision-making in today’s context.     

The second aspect of ACT’s policy position is to create ‘market-choice’ in the social sector.  This is reflective of social policies attempted in the mid-1980s.  Again, the historic experience for Māori during this time period was significant social upheaval with negative social policy outcomes, such as record (25%) Māori unemployment.   There is no evidence that market-choice at that time improving Māori wellbeing – in fact the results of this policy era lead to a ‘closing the gaps policy in the mid-1990s.  As an example, research shows ‘choice-theory’ in the school lead to school selection of students and ‘white-flight’, leading to resources actually being shifted away from Māori – and consequently less educational provisions for Māori communities (and ultimately educational results for Māori learners did not improve).  Again then, the historic experience of this type of policy framework does not demonstrate policy advancements for Māori.

Although we have tried to highlight potential positives and negative  aspects within the policy framework of all parties reviewed, in the case of ACT it is challenging to see any degree of responsiveness to Māori collective issues based on historic evidence or stated Māori aspiration.  This is, of course, part of the political positioning of this party, on the political right, with a focus on individuals (not groups), and a focus on market driven choice (not targeted interventions). 

From week ending 11 November 2011

Posted by admin