National turns around looking for Maori seats in 2023

Tu Williams, Chair of National Party Maori Wing Kahurangi Blue, stood at the back as Judith Collins, flanked by Party President Peter Goodfellow, answered questions about the Party’s plan to start contesting the Maori seats. (Photo for Newsroom by Lynn Grieveson). 

The first National Party caucus retreat since the Party’s devastating election loss last year was a stark reminder of just how tough the job ahead will be, writes Political Editor Jo Moir.

It was a much slimmer gathering of MPs, freshly returned from their summer break, that gathered for National’s Caucus retreat, where relaxed and rested Leader Judith Collins confirmed that the Party is working towards standing candidates in the Maori seats in 2023.

Collins says National has been absent from the Maori electorate contest for too long.

She was not wrong.

No contest since 2002

Two of her most prominent predecessors – Sir John Key and Sir Bill English – had no interest in running candidates in the seats.

National has not contested the electorates since 2002, and in the years since, its position has ranged from wanting the seats abolished to wanting them gone once Maori decided it was the right time.

Collins said that the shift is not about actually winning the seats but being present “on the Marae” and fighting for the Party vote.

But she could not name one current MP that had any interest in putting their hand up in a Maori seat in 2023.

Deputy Leader Shane Reti would be the most likely candidate, but he has his eyes fixed on winning back the Whangarei seat that he lost to Labour last year.

The only other politician currently in the caucus who identifies as Maori is Tauranga MP Simon Bridges.

Changing positions

Both Collins and her former Deputy Leader Gerry Brownlee have lived through the era of National distancing itself from the seats. They defended the flip-flop appearance of the announcement by saying that Party positions change.

But it is the timing of the change that many will see as cynical.

The National Party President Peter Goodfellow said that the idea has been in the pipeline for about three years.

In that three years, Te Paati Maori got knocked out of Parliament and declared its alliance with National was mostly to blame.

Te Paati Maori is now back in Parliament after successfully selling a message that it would not make the same mistakes again – all but shutting the door to National and its ability to contract out its relationship with Maori and Iwi.

Establishing the connection

That is a problem for National, and if it wants to say that it is a Party for all New Zealanders, it has to find a way to connect with Maori from within its own ranks.

That is a difficult task now that it has one of the least diverse Caucuses in years and with prominent Maori National MPs like Hekia Parata and Nuk Korako long gone.

National wanting to better represent all New Zealanders is a good thing, especially in an MMP environment that delivered a Labour-majority government.

But a starting point of wanting Maori votes, but not really being interested in representing Maori in a seat is deeply flawed.

New Zealand has a long way to go when it comes to addressing Maori inequality.

And when a number of MPs across the political divide fail to get through daily interviews without butchering simple Maori names and places, there is a sense that not a lot of effort is being put in even at the most basic level.

With Te Paati Maori having returned to Parliament and the Labour Maori Caucus having grown significantly in size, there is an opportunity for real meaningful engagement and change across a number of kaupapa.

The National Party wanting to be part of that conversation is great news, but only if its motivations for doing so are genuinely about representation and not simply mining for votes.

Jo Moir is Political Editor at Newsroom. She previously reported from the Parliamentary Press Gallery for RNZ and Stuff. The above story has been published under a Special Arrangement with Newsroom.