As we all saw on the news for like a solid
week was the discussion around Mayor Judd of New Plymouth pushing for Maori
Representation on the local council. Here, affirmative action was not welcome.
But what is interesting is how journalist on primetime television expressed his
own opinion about the matter.
Roughly here is a quick run down of how some of our electoral system works majority of our local councils use FPP or First Past the Post system. This means that the electorate needs to have the most votes to be elected and do not require to have more than 50% of the votes. Some councils are still using STV or Single Transferable Vote. This voting system is like giving voters the option to choose their favourite and then their second favourite and then their third favourite or just order of preference. So if their absolute favourite doesn't get in, their vote may still count towards getting someone in.
In 2013, 7 local councils still used STV versus the 120 electorates in the country. FPP is difficult for Maori candidates to use to their advantage as Maori are significantly the minority in many areas. FPP favours geographical position in local councils, so if there are more non-Maori in an area it is less likely Maori will be elected because there are less Maori to vote for them and it only counts towards the number of votes. STV also doesn't do well for Maori but in comparison to FPP it is more likely they may gain being elected.
There have been multiple times where there was a push for Maori representation on a local board. Here in Auckland, there have been recommendations to push allocated Maori. 2009 Contrary to Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Royal Commission advised that the Auckland council should have two elected Maori councillors and one appointed Mana whenua councillor. Because the council denied earlier pushes it resulted in the instalment of the Independent Maori Statutory Board. A board that has received criticism due to the preferential nature of the name. IMSB does not have any legislative rights or powers but are treated as if they do.
Roughly here is a quick run down of how some of our electoral system works majority of our local councils use FPP or First Past the Post system. This means that the electorate needs to have the most votes to be elected and do not require to have more than 50% of the votes. Some councils are still using STV or Single Transferable Vote. This voting system is like giving voters the option to choose their favourite and then their second favourite and then their third favourite or just order of preference. So if their absolute favourite doesn't get in, their vote may still count towards getting someone in.
In 2013, 7 local councils still used STV versus the 120 electorates in the country. FPP is difficult for Maori candidates to use to their advantage as Maori are significantly the minority in many areas. FPP favours geographical position in local councils, so if there are more non-Maori in an area it is less likely Maori will be elected because there are less Maori to vote for them and it only counts towards the number of votes. STV also doesn't do well for Maori but in comparison to FPP it is more likely they may gain being elected.
There have been multiple times where there was a push for Maori representation on a local board. Here in Auckland, there have been recommendations to push allocated Maori. 2009 Contrary to Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Royal Commission advised that the Auckland council should have two elected Maori councillors and one appointed Mana whenua councillor. Because the council denied earlier pushes it resulted in the instalment of the Independent Maori Statutory Board. A board that has received criticism due to the preferential nature of the name. IMSB does not have any legislative rights or powers but are treated as if they do.
It is obvious from media representations, primetime is not worried about race relations anytime soon.
I do agree with what you are saying and this is a particular topic that is still of concern today. There will always be political representation within politics and that goes to say within any country but Maori representation within New Zealand politics should be more acknowledge. Whereas in reality this was their (the Maori's) land first. Within the beginning of the blog it is good that you explained a bit on what the 'electoral system' is and how it works, however I do not think it was as relevant towards your main argument. There should be more seats in parliament for Maori's and the media should stop sending certain representations out to the public as it does influence people.
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