There’s no single M¯aori voice

Joel Maxwell wrote on Monday: ‘‘You’re a loser, Don, but I love you anyway’’. In a funny kind of way, I should have been flattered by the article. He described me as an idealist, but then noted that idealists are almost always losers. He referred to my 2004 speech to the Orewa Rotary Club and said he believed I spoke in good faith. Too right I did.

Maxwell then went on to disparage those who pushed for a referendum on the decision by the Manawatu¯ District Council to establish one or more Ma¯ ori wards, noting that nobody demanded a referendum when councils established other wards.

Quite correct. But there is a world of difference between drawing geographical lines on the map to create wards, or electorates, and creating wards based on when one or more of a person’s ancestors came to New Zealand. The latter is outright racism, and it can be nothing else. The proposal to create Ma¯ ori wards would have those who chance to have a Ma¯ ori ancestor (always with ancestors of other ethnicities as well of course, as

with Maxwell himself) defined as separate, qualitatively different, because of their race. And that is what racism is.

Some argue for Ma¯ ori wards to enable those with a Ma¯ ori ancestor to have a voice in local government, implying, and sometimes explicitly claiming, that without such a leg-up ‘‘the Ma¯ ori voice’’ can’t be heard in local government.

This is of course complete and utter nonsense. First, it begs the question of what ‘‘the Ma¯ ori voice’’ is – Ma¯ ori New Zealanders have a very wide range of views on all major issues, including no doubt on the issues dealt with by local government – drainage, roads, parks, libraries and all the rest.

Second, it assumes that, without a Ma¯ ori ward, New Zealanders with a Ma¯ ori ancestor are incapable of being elected to local government. This has to be patronising twaddle. What about Ron Mark and Georgina Beyer, both of whom were elected at different times as mayor of Carterton, and the other Ma¯ ori who have been elected to local government throughout the country?

And of course the notion that Ma¯ ori

are incapable of being elected to local government without the creation of Ma¯ ori wards is surely comprehensively refuted by how many Ma¯ ori have been elected to Parliament – 29 now, almost a quarter of the total, with only six of them dependent on the Ma¯ ori electorates.

Even in the unlikely event that nobody with a Ma¯ ori ancestor could get elected, there is a plethora of laws which require local councils to pay special deference to the views of those with a Ma¯ ori ancestor. I may not like that racially based preference, but that is the current law so there is not the slightest chance of ‘‘the Ma¯ ori view’’ (if there is such a thing) being ignored.

When Governor Hobson said to each chief who signed the Treaty in 1840 ‘‘we are now one people’’, I have no doubt he meant it. Moving forward as one people, with the equal rights promised in the Treaty, is the only way to a peaceful future. So Joel, I appreciate your love, but don’t need your sympathy.

Don Brash is co-spokesman of Hobson’s Pledge.