Rino Tirikatene, who represents Labour in the Maori seat of Te Tai Tonga, is fighting to entrench the Maori seats, whereby a vote of 75 percent of MPs would be needed to get rid of them.
Submissions on the Bill have now been called for. Please consider putting in a submission and encourage others to do so too. As Dr Muriel Newman recently wrote in her weekly column: “In politics submission numbers really matter. If a bill ends up with overwhelming public support at a Select Committee, then those pushing it will claim the country is behind their cause.”
For an in-depth look at this issue, Dr Newman’s article ‘Time to Have A Say On Entrenching The Maori Seats’, is recommended. Please click HERE.
Submissions can be made on-line HERE, or emailed to the Maori Affairs Select Committee at [email protected] by 14 December 2018.
(Please see HERE for a plea to make a submission by Paul, a member of the working group).