Ikaroa-Rāwhiti

The Māori seats began as a workaround for a property rule that excluded Māori from voting, were meant to last five years, and are now in their 159th year. They have been argued over for almost all of that time - first as too few, later as too many, and today as either a Tiriti right or an anachronism depending on who is asked.

1. 1867The Māori Representation Act creates four Māori seats - Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Māori. Voting then required owning land with an individual Crown title, and because Māori land was held communally, almost no Māori qualified. The seats were the workaround. They were meant to last five years.
2. 1868The first Māori seat elections are held. Four seats for roughly 60,000 Māori was never proportional: general electorates of the day served about 3,500 people each, so proportional representation would have meant closer to twenty seats.
3. 1872-1876The five-year sunset is extended, then removed altogether. What was designed as a temporary fix becomes permanent - but stays frozen at four seats.
4. 1893The property qualification for voting is abolished. The original reason for separate seats disappears, and the argument over whether they should continue begins in earnest. It has not stopped since.
5. 1867-1996Four seats, for 129 years. Over the same period general electorates grew from 76 to 99. Because the Māori seats could not grow with the population, Māori votes were worth progressively less - by 1951 one Māori electorate covered the entire South Island's 3,959 Māori residents while another covered tens of thousands in the north.
6. 1975-76Māori voters get a choice of roll for the first time. Before this, enrolment was decided by blood quantum, and only people recorded as 'half-caste' could choose. Roll switching is limited to a three-month window every five years.
7. 1993The Electoral Act brings in MMP and unfreezes the seats. The number of Māori electorates now floats: the Māori electoral population divided by the South Island general electorate quota. For the first time the count depends on how many people choose the Māori roll.
8. 1996-2002Five seats in 1996 - and the first time they carry Māori names. Six in 1999, seven from 2002. Seven is still the number today.
9. 2022The Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Act ends the five-yearly window. Māori voters can now switch rolls at almost any time, except in the three months before an election. It passed with 75 percent support, Labour and National together.
10. 2026Seven seats contested at the 7 November election. NZ First is campaigning to abolish them; the Greens have a member's bill, in Hūhana Lyndon's name, to entrench them so that abolition would need 75 percent of MPs or a referendum.