Reading English in Context
[2003] New Zealand Law Journal 239
Posted: 29 Sep 2017
Date Written: July 30, 2003
Abstract
This article responded to the announcement in May 2003, by then leader of the New Zealand National Party Bill English, that abolition of the Maori seats had become official National Party policy. I am posting the article now (some 14 years later) because following the September 2017 general election, coalition negotiations are currently under way between a National Party again headed by Bill English, and a potential coalition partner (New Zealand First) that are espousing the holding of a referendum on the future of the Maori seats.
The article focuses on English's reliance on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform in 1986 that the seats should be abolished. The article suggests that, once the Royal Commission's recommendation is read in context, it becomes clear that it does not support abolition of the seats in the circumstances of New Zealand's current electoral and constitutional (indeed, if anything, quite the opposite).
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