The recent diatribe by Minister of Māori Development Willie Jackson which slams the ‘one person, one vote’ outrage is alarming not only for its content but its ignorance of history, facts, and the essence of democracy.

He claims that the recently passed Ngai Tahu Bill is how a “partnership promised in the Treaty is fulfilled”. Apparently, those that disagree are weaponising ‘one person, one vote’, a piece of linguistic gymnastics that no democrat can follow.

Leaping from the UK to the USA he opines that the ‘House of Lords is not one person, one vote’ and that ‘the Electoral College is not one person, one vote’. Clearly an absence of historic understanding of how those two institutions began, or exist, is not of concern to him.

He then trumps (excuse the pun) a claim that with MMP ‘it’s one person, two votes’. The fact that every voter is at the same level whether they vote one time or twice, under MMP, totally escapes him. That is the prelude to his claim that ‘the moment New Zealand extends the universal suffrage of representation promised to the indigenous people of our country there is outrage. It is truly staggering that a claim of partnership can be made on the 6th of February 1840 for Māori, when Queen Victoria was not in partnership with anyone in the Empire, on the day before, 5th of February, or the day after 7th of February. And there was no universal suffrage anywhere in the world at that time. To say universal suffrage was in the mind of either the British or the Māori on the 6th of February 1840 is just ludicrous.

And then if local body representation is a direct connection to ratepayers, then why would someone paying rates in a local body area not be entitled to a vote in that local body election. Wherever they vote, if they have more than one property in more than one local body area, that vote is worth the same as any other local body rate payer’s vote. A sort of municipal evolution of the ‘no taxation without representation’ complaint which led to the American War for Independence.

Then, in an epiphany of enlightenment, Willie excuses the current government’s attempts to gerrymander democracy as a ‘genuine engagement to build bridges not walls’. And sadly, he’s right when he says, ‘we are using the co-governance architecture that National and ACT built’.

Mr Jackson’s defence is that ‘we have a new democracy since MMP was introduced in 1996. More women, more Māori, and then more Pacifica and ethnic minorities’. Strange that, because I don’t recall when I was on the front line of the campaign for MMP for the very reason that Willie Jackson outlines, ever seeing Willie Jackson or his ilk in that campaign. Moreover, the Royal Commission that led to MMP foresaw that in time many more Māori in Parliament would do away with the Māori seats. Having grabbed the best of MMP Willie does not want to give up the worst of First Past the Post.

Then he claims I was a direct beneficiary of MMP. Just one more falsehood. When New Zealand First arrived in Parliament as a Party in 1993 it was under First Past the Post. Then he claims that I was a beneficiary in 1999 when one seat brought other MPs to Parliament even though the Parties percentage might be less than 5%. Has Mr Jackson forgotten that New Zealand First is the only Party that has opposed that provision and supported maintaining the 5% threshold? That’s my bona fides. What, the public may well ask, are yours Willie?

The Ngai Tahu Bill was pushed by the Labour Party in 2019. New Zealand First rejected it as being undemocratic, but it came back last week as unmeritorious now as it was 3 years ago.

The sad thing is that while politicians like Willie Jackson push their pet project for a certain Māori elite, Māori housing, health, education, and incomes remain on the scrap heap of their political concerns.

The depth of sincerity behind Mr Jackson’s diatribe can best be assessed by his willingness to ram down the throats of Ngai Tahu, and indeed all South Islanders, a name for our country that doesn’t and has never included Ngai Tahu or the South Island (Te Waipounamu).

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