Brian Rudman: Hey Tau, postcode's a bigger worry than ancestry

Tau Henare will go down as the chameleon par excellence of recent politics. Not content with belonging to just about every party going, he's also something of a shopaholic when it comes to policies, changing brands when it suits.

Take the vexed issue of Maori representation on the new Auckland Council. Early this week Mr Henare, currently a National list MP, wrote to his caucus colleagues attacking Act leader and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide for opposing separate Maori seats on the new super council.

He accused Act of threatening to end its relationship with National "if we allow Maori seats on the Super City".

Mr Hide denies he made any such threat, saying it had never occurred to him that a National Government would even be contemplating having separate Maori seats. And it's easy to understand Mr Hide's surprise.

In November 2003, Mr Henare, a former Maori Affairs Minister from a Maori electorate, called on National to back its call for scrapping of Maori seats by not standing any candidates in them at the next election.

He said they created a "second class" of MP and it was ludicrous to keep them in the 21st century. "They're past their use-by date."

In February 2007, Prime Minister John Key reaffirmed National's intention to abolish Maori seats by 2014.

"National," he said, "thinks there's no place for ethnically based electoral systems in 21st century New Zealand."

In July 2007, Mr Henare echoed this, saying that from his experience as a Maori electorate MP "you get marginalised, you get put in a little box and people think that the only thing that you can talk about is Maori issues. I'm not up to that any more, I think I've something to say about education, about housing, about defence ... I don't want to be marginalised any more."

Last September, after Mr Key confirmed National's election pledge to dump Maori seats in 2014, Mr Henare was again in support.

"I think we should stop ghettoising ourselves and also I think we should stop letting off the hook all those MPs in Wellington that think because you've got Maori seats they don't have to worry about Maori issues."

This year, Mr Key said his Government did not accept the royal commission's recommendation for three Maori representatives on the Auckland Council. After protests, he dangled the slender hope that the decision was not "set in stone".

Mr Henare was appointed to head a parliamentary subcommittee hearing submissions on the issue. Before this, Ngati Whatua leader Grant Hawke challenged "comments by Tau Henare that Maori seats in the Auckland Super City would be undemocratic".

Soon after, Mr Henare was on the TV programme Marae seemingly criticising Maori seats as "based on what colour you are".

However, he said, "I quite like the idea" of manawhenua seats that recognise "the indigeneity" of people descended from the area. A seat or two, in other words, for Maori who could trace their ancestry to Auckland.

But he was "a team player" and "if I lose the argument" in caucus, "I'm still a team player".

His sudden, pro-Maori seat outburst this week has me wondering which team he was talking about. Perhaps all that time chairing the subcommittee has made him forget which team he's signed up to.

No talk of "use-by date" or "ludicrous" or "ghettoising" this week. Instead, he tells his caucus that "essentially it all boils down to one concept, progress. Maori political representation is seen as an essential part of our developing nation ..." and "the resistance to Maori seats ... shows a distinct lack of political will". So it's a case of choose either side with Mr Henare. I'll stick with his old 21st century-look team, not the new, backward-looking one. Why? For all the reasons he has so cogently argued.

But to me, the true crisis of democracy hovering over the new Super City is not the claims of those demanding a right to rule based on ancestry. The much more real threat is from those claiming the right to rule based on their wealth and eastern suburbs postal codes.

What value a couple of Maori seats if the council ends up dominated by a mayor and supporting bloc, elected at large. Mr Henare should be fighting for a full ward system and democracy for all Aucklanders, not a ghetto for a few.