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After the establishment of Westminster-style Parliamentary Government in New Zealand in 1852, the Māori inhabitants had allotted to them from 1867 specific seats in the New Zealand Parliament. Such seats survive to this day. Westminster is the area located immediately to the west of the ancient City of London, in the centre of the wider conurbation of London. ...
The debating chamber or hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels. ...
Several politico-constitutional arrangements use reserved political positions, especially when endeavoring to ensure the rights of minorities or preserving a political balance of power. ...
The New Zealand Parliament is the legislative body of the New Zealand government. ...
Organisation
The Māori seats operate in much the same way as general seats, but have as electors people who identify as Māori and who choose to place their names on a separate electoral roll. Māori electoral boundaries exist on top of the electoral boundaries used for general seats - every part of New Zealand simultaneously belongs both in a general seat and in a Māori seat. Te Puni, MÄori Chief MÄori is the name of the indigenous people of New Zealand, and their language. ...
Number of seats For most of the period of separate Māori representation, a fixed number of four Māori seats existed (out of a total that slowly changed from under 80 to 99). They comprised: - Eastern Māori
- Northern Māori
- Southern Māori
- Western Māori
With the introduction of the MMP electoral system in 1993, the rules regarding the Māori seats changed - today, the number of seats floats, meaning that the voting population of a Māori seat can remain roughly equivalent to that of a general seat. In the first MMP vote (the 1996 election), the Electoral Commission defined five Maori seats: The Additional Member System (AMS) is a voting system where some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from party lists. ...
1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...
The 1996 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament. ...
- Te Puku O Te Whenua ("the belly of the land")
- Te Tai Hauauru ("the west side")
- Te Tai Rawhiti ("the east side")
- Te Tai Tokerau ("the north side")
- Te Tai Tonga ("the south side")
For the second (the 1999 election), six Māori seats existed: The 1999 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the 46th session of the New Zealand Parliament. ...
- Hauraki
- Ikaroa-Rawhiti
- Te Tai Hauauru
- Te Tai Tokerau
- Te Tai Tonga
- Waiariki
The 2002 election had seven: The 2002 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the 47th New Zealand Parliament. ...
- Ikaroa-Rawhiti
- Tainui
- Tamaki Makaurau (roughly equivalent to greater Auckland)
- Te Tai Hauauru
- Te Tai Tokerau
- Te Tai Tonga
- Waiariki
Seven out of 69 (10 percent) does not nearly reflect the proportion of New Zealanders who identify as Māori (about 15 percent), but since many Māori choose to enrol in general electorates, the proportion reflects fairly accurately the proportion of voters on the Māori roll. Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. ...
For maps suggesting broad electoral boundaries, see selected links to individual elections at New Zealand elections. Members of New Zealands House of Representatives, commonly called Parliament, normally gain their seats in a nationwide general election. ...
Elections Today, elections for Māori seats occur as part of New Zealand general elections. In the past, however, elections for Māori seats took place separately, occurring on different days and having different rules. Historically, less organisation went into holding Māori elections than general elections, and the process received fewer resources. At first, Māori seats did not even require registration for voting, although later rules changed this. New practices such as paper ballots (as opposed to casting one's vote verbally) and secret ballots also came later to elections for Māori seats than to general seats. The authorities frequently delayed or overlooked reforms of the Māori electoral system, with Parliament considering the Māori seats as largely unimportant. The gradual improvement of Māori elections owes much to long-serving Māori MP Eruera Tirikatene, who himself experienced problems in his own election. By the election of 1951 all distinctions had finally disappeared with the integration of general seats and Māori seats. Members of New Zealands House of Representatives, commonly called Parliament, normally gain their seats in a nationwide general election. ...
A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. ...
The Polling by William Hogarth (1755); Before the secret ballot was introduced voter intimidation was commonplace The secret ballot is a process in elections where the choice of the voters is kept confidential. ...
The 1951 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliaments 30th term. ...
Party politics As the Māori seats originated before the development of political parties in New Zealand, all early Māori MPs functioned as independents. When the Liberal Party formed, however, the Māori seats began to align themselves with the new organisation, with either Liberal candidates or Liberal sympathisers as representatives. New Zealand national politics feature a pervasive party system. ...
This article is about the original New Zealand Liberal Party. ...
Since the Labour Party first came to power in 1935, however, it has dominated the Māori seats. For a long period this dominance owed much to Labour's alliance with the Ratana Church, although the Ratana influence has diminished in recent times. In the 1996 election, however, the new New Zealand First Party, led by the part-Māori Winston Peters - who himself held the general seat of Tauranga - captured all the Māori seats for one electoral term. Labour regained the seats in the following election in 1999. The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. ...
1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Both a religion and a pan-tribal political force, the Ratana movement was founded by Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana (1873 - 1939) in early 20th century New Zealand. ...
The 1996 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament. ...
Current New Zealand First logo New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand. ...
The Right Honourable Winston Raymond Peters (born April 11, 1945) is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament. ...
Tauranga (population 90,906 — 2001 census) is the major city of the western Bay of Plenty on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. ...
A change in the Māori seats came in 2004 with the resignation of Tariana Turia from her ministerial position in the Labour-dominated coalition and from her Te Tai Hauauru parliamentary seat. In the resulting by-election on 10 July 2004, operating under the banner of the new Māori Party, she received over 90 percent of the 7,000-plus votes cast. The parties then represented in Parliament had not put up official candidates in the by-election. The new party's support in relation to Labour therefore remains untested at the polling booth. Tariana Turia (born 8 April 1944) is a New Zealand politician. ...
The Te Tai Hauauru by-election was a by-election in the New Zealand electorate of Te Tai Hauauru, one of the Maori seats. ...
July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. ...
2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Maori Party aims to win all seven Maori seats in the next scheduled election (2005), but opinions differ over its chances. A Marae-Digipoll survey of Māori roll voters in November 2004 gave it hope: 35.7 percent said they would vote for a Māori Party candidate, 26.3 percent opted for Labour, and five of the seven seats appeared ready to fall to the new party.
Establishment The establishment of Māori seats came about in 1867 with the Māori Representation Act, drafted by Napier Member of Parliament (MP) Donald McLean. Parliament passed the Act only after lengthy debate. Many conservative MPs, most of whom considered Māori "unfit" to participate in government, opposed Māori representation in Parliament, while some of the more radical MPs (such as James FitzGerald, who had proposed allocating a third of Parliament to Māori) regarded the concessions given to Māori as insufficient. In the end the setting up of Māori seats separate from existing seats assuaged conservative opposition to the bill - conservatives had previously feared that Māori would gain the right to vote in general electorates, thereby forcing all MPs (rather than just four Māori MPs) to take notice of Māori opinion. 1867 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ...
James Edward FitzGerald (1818 - 1896) was a New Zealand politician. ...
Before this law came into effect, no direct prohibition on Māori voting existed, but other indirect prohibitions made it extremely difficult for Māori to exercise their theoretical electoral rights. The most significant problem involved the property qualification - in order to vote, one needed to possess a certain value of land. Māori owned a great deal of land, but they held it in common, not under individual title, and under the law, only land held under individual title could count towards the property qualification. Donald McLean explicitly intended his bill as a temporary measure, giving specific representation to Māori until they adopted European customs of land ownership. However, the Māori seats lasted far longer than the intended five years, and remain in place today.
Calls for abolition Ever since the establishment of the Māori seats, periodic calls have arisen for their abolition. Even at the time of their origin, the seats aroused much controversy, and given their intended temporary nature, attempts to abolish them arose quickly. The reasoning behind these attempts has varied - some have seen the seats as an unfair or unnecessary advantage for Māori, while others have seen them as discriminatory and offensive.
In 1902, a consolidation of electoral law prompted considerable discussion of the Māori seats, and some MPs proposed their abolition. Many of the proposals came from members of the opposition, and possibly had political motivations - in general, the Māori MPs had supported the governing Liberal Party, which had held power since 1891. Many MPs alleged frequent cases of corruption in elections for the Māori seats. Other MPs, however, supported the abolition of Māori seats for different reasons - Frederick Pirani, a member of the Liberal Party, said that the absence of Māori voters from general seats prevented "pakeha members of the House from taking that interest in Māori matters that they ought to take". The Māori MPs, however, mounted a strong defence of the seats, with Wi Pere depicting guaranteed representation in Parliament as one of the few rights Māori possessed not "filched from them by the Europeans". The seats continued in existence. 1902 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
Parliamentary Opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. ...
This article is about the original New Zealand Liberal Party. ...
Pakeha is a New Zealand English word for European New Zealanders, that is, New Zealanders of predominantly European descent. ...
Just a short time later, in 1905, another re-arrangement of electoral law caused the debate to flare up again. The Minister of Māori Affairs, James Carroll, supported proposals for the abolition of Māori seats, pointing to the fact that he himself had successfully won the general seat of Waiapu. Other Māori MPs, such as Hone Heke Ngapua, remained opposed, however. In the end, the proposals for the abolition or reform of Māori seats did not proceed. 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
Considerably later, in 1953, the first ever major re-alignment of Māori electoral boundaries occurred, addressing inequalities in voter numbers. Again, the focus on Māori seats prompted further debate about their existence. The government of the day, the National Party, had at the time a commitment to the assimilation of Māori, and had no Māori MPs, and so many believed that they would abolish the seats. However, the government had other matters to attend to, and the issue of the Māori seats gradually faded from view without any changes occurring. Regardless, the possible abolition of the Māori seats appeared indicated when they did not appear among the electoral provisions "entrenched" against future modification. 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...
Current National Party logo The New Zealand National Party currently forms the second-largest (in terms of seats) political party in the New Zealand Parliament, and thus functions as the core of the Opposition. ...
In 1976, Māori gained the right for the first time to decide on which electoral roll they preferred to enrol. Surprisingly, only 40 percent of the potential population registered on the Māori roll. This reduced the number of calls for the abolition of Māori seats, as many presumed that Māori would eventually abandon the Māori seats of their own accord. 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...
When a Royal Commission proposed the adoption of the MMP electoral system in 1986, it also proposed that if the country adopted the new system, it should abolish the Māori seats. The Commission argued that under MMP, all parties would have to pay attention to Māori voters, and that the existence of separate Māori seats marginalised Māori concerns. Following a referendum, Parliament drafted an Electoral Reform Bill, incorporating the abolition of the Māori seats. Both the National Party and Geoffrey Palmer, Labour's leading reformist, supported abolition; but most Māori strongly opposed it. Eventually, the provision did not become law: the Māori seats came closer than ever to abolition, but survived. The Additional Member System (AMS) is a voting system where some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from party lists. ...
1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Until 1996, New Zealand used the British system of first past the post (FPP) for parliamentary elections . ...
For the British actor, see Geoffrey Palmer (actor) For the English lawyer, see Geoffrey Palmer (attorney) The Right Honourable Sir Geoffrey Winston Russell Palmer, AC, KCMG (born 21 April 1942), served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from August 1989 until September 1990, leading the Labour Party. ...
More recently, the National Party has advocated abolition of the separate seats. New Zealand First also advocates abolition of the separate seats but says it should be the decision of the Māori voters.
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