The issue of Māori water rights has had a resurgence in New Zealand politics. The government recently turned down a proposal from iwi to award Māori permanent water rights. The proposal sought to discard the existing system of water allocation, whereby water rights can be granted through local council consent on a renewal basis.
The Māori Party has remained surprisingly neutral over the issue, despite Māori rights remaining a top priority for the party. Māori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell recently appeared on TV ONE political interest show, Q+A, where he said his opinion on Māori water rights was not relevant. He claimed water rights “are issues to be sorted out between iwi and the crown”.
Flavell explained that the party’s role was to facilitate an open dialogue between iwi and the government. However, he refused to comment on whether he supported the iwi bid to reclaim water rights. Flavell confirmed that the issue remained important to the party.
The Māori Party has remained as a coalition partner to the National government since 2008, which has stirred controversy concerning the Māori Party’s priorities.
Political commentator, Dr Bryce Edwards, said the Māori Party is “[no longer] as crucial as they were 10 years ago … 15 percent of New Zealanders have Māori ancestry or identify as Māori, [but] the Māori Party only gets one percent of the vote”.
Edwards said, “it’s hard to say whether [party co-leader] Flavell has any influence … It’s hard to know what goes on behind the scenes.” In terms of public debate, Edwards said the Māori Party is no longer relevant.
When asked whether they had lost support due taking a backseat on Māori issues, a representative of the Māori Party said they “had played a really strong role in advocacy, and certainly do not agree with everything National do”.
“In fact,” said the representative, “[the Māori Party] probably oppose more of the legislation that National puts up than some of the opposition parties do”.