suggests that Labour’s main opposition, the center-right National Party, and ACT could together capture a slim majority of seats in October’s election, well ahead of the number a potential Labour and Green coalition are currently pollingthat while it supports the co-management between government and Māori for natural resources in the context of treaty settlements, it does not support co-governance of public services or separate bureaucratic systems for Māori and non-Māori.
are complicating relations almost 200 years later. While the meaning of the treaty is still debated, in the late 20th century it was acknowledged that the Crown breached the agreement However, Seymour, the ACT party leader who is Māori, is concerned the government is interpreting the treaty as a partnership between Māori and the Crown in which matters in the public sphere should be co-governed as “a matter of course” and where Māori are reserved seats at the table based on their race. It amounts, he said, to saying New Zealand is no longer a “one person, one vote democracy.”
Asked earlier this year whether the government’s water infrastructure reforms were democratic, McAnulty told the broadcaster “Parliament should sit down and have a proper debate about some of these fundamental concepts,” he said. “I think it’s healthy.”Saphora Smith