Why your vote matters

Nā Jody O'Callaghan

MĀORI ARE USING HĪKOI AND SUBMISSIONS TO PROTEST AGAINST THE government, and there are calls for them to raise their voices through the Māori electoral roll, with the idea that if all Māori voted on the Māori roll, Māori seats in parliament would be at least double.

But rakatahi Coco Myers (Kāi Tahu) who will be 19 and first-time voter by the time the next election rolls around is, like many others, asking questions about Māori representation. In the absence of political education at school, and it rarely being discussed among her peers, Coco wonders which roll to select – Māori or General.

Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Associate Professor of political science, Dr Lara Greaves (Ngāpuhi), says research shows Māori choose the Māori roll because it represents their culture and values. But the Māori electoral roll has been historically underfunded, and “a lot of my work shows only a minority of Māori know key facts about the electoral roll.”

“Any public information is not packaged in a way that rakatahi would engage with or find relevant to their lives,” Dr Greaves says. “Rangatahi are a growing and proud Māori population, and a group you want to have on board.” The recent hīkoi raised awareness of the Māori roll, with another 3000 Māori enrolling.

While the 2018 Māori Electoral Option showed the percentage of Māori on the Māori electoral roll remained a majority at 52.4 percent, it also showed a net increase of Māori changing to the general electoral roll. This prompted a survey by Victoria University’s Associate Professor Maria Bargh. She set out to understand why Māori were choosing the general electoral roll, and what it would take to make them change to the Māori electoral roll.

The answers for 80 percent of respondents were: "There is more choice of candidates on the general roll’ and ‘Māori don’t all think the same and it’s good to have Māori on both electoral rolls."

The Electoral Commission’s Karl Le Quesne says the number of electorates has already been set for the 2026 General Election – general electorates in Te Ika-a-Māui will reduce from 49 to 48, general electorates in Te Waipounamu are fixed at 16, and Māori seats remain unchanged at seven.

The decision on how many Māori seats involves some “nasty maths” every five years, Dr Greaves says, in line with the census (the census has issues with data quality around the actual population of Māori). Either way, the more Māori on the roll the more seats there will be. The MP vote is whoever runs in the electorate, but those on the Māori roll can still vote for whichever party they see fit.

Coco Myers left school a year early to devote more time to her te reo Māori journey at Ara’s Te Puna Wānaka; she excelled and gained top place in her 2024 class. Showing tautoko for kaupapa Māori is important to her, but she is unsure how politics and te ao Māori fit.

“I think it’s important to vote and be a part of it all. Especially as a minority group when a lot don’t vote, it’s important to support and uphold our voice.” But for rakatahi, voting is “not the first thing on their minds” when their whānau is the only place to get guidance on politics, and many of their parents may not vote.

According to Te Tai Tonga Māori MP Tākuta Ferris, there is no question: “Māori have been on the Pākehā roll for generations and it has got us nowhere. They have them all [seats] and we don’t. In a democratic scenario we will always lose.”

Tākuta goes on to say that if Te Pāti Māori put up 20 candidates and they all won those Māori seats, both major parties would not be able to form a government without them – so any government would have a tangata whenua coalition.

He argues that currently there is the strongest ever Māori independent presence in parliament, which is causing issues in the parliament system. Te ao Māori is represented in the house more than ever before – with haka and te reo from proud Māori making waves internationally.

It is important Māori MPs are not hamstrung by the policies and narratives of a major Pākehā party,” Tākuta says. “Unfortunately, the majority of the past Māori seats have been held by Pākehā parties and so the Māori seat [MP] has never been able to say what it wants in parliament. That’s a serious problem.”

Those MPs were “only allowed to say what the Pākehā party allows [them] to say” rather than “speak their Māori truth and say whatever’s important for us.” Young people need to understand the impact that the government has on their lives.

“I’m a pretty staunch Māori and I can say they [the government] don’t even matter, but the reality of it is that a government gets to spend $180 billion a year shaping the way we live as a country.

He adds that there are many things about the political system that can be improved to allow greater access for Māori. The size of his electorate, Te Tai Tonga, “is a joke” – from Te Whanganui-a-Tara down to Rakiura and inclusive of Chatham Islands. There are 21 general electorates in the same geographical area. The needs of Māori voters vary within the takiwā, and it is a lot for one MP to cover. “It’s very unfair, there’s no real democratic way to explain yourself out of that.” Also, with a growing number of rakatahi Māori in Aotearoa, things need to change.

Te Pāti Māori understands the most possible Māori seats if all enrolled on the Māori roll to be 20, but Dr Greaves believes it to be 14 according to the population. Her advice: “Talk to people you trust about why they enroll on each roll, fill out the form and get on the roll now”, then you won’t forget when elections roll around. Also, it is easy to engage with politics, like putting in submissions to have your voice around the Treaty Principles Bill.

A key thing to remember when thinking about enrolling, is you cannot change rolls within three months of an election. And a final word from Tākuta Ferris: “Don’t ever believe you don’t have the power to influence change. We’re the tangata whenua of this country, we shouldn’t just be included; there is a clear distinctive place for the tangata whenua of the country.”