Labour and National agree on Māori electoral law change

Under the law change Māori will be able to switch rolls at any time aside from certain periods leading up to an election. Photo / Getty Images

Labour and National have come together in a rare moment of Parliamentary agreement to ensure a law to make it easier for Māori to switch electoral rolls passes.

A bipartisan approach was needed to pass the Māori Electoral Option Bill, as it requires changes to the Electoral Act and with it 75 per cent of Parliament, or a referendum, to support it.

As it stands, Māori can only switch between the Māori and general electoral rolls once every five to six years during a four-month slot after the census, despite elections occurring every three years.

The last Māori Electoral Option was in 2018 and the next is due in 2024. Proponents have labelled the process “racist” and contributing to low voter turnout, as if Māori are on the wrong roll it can take years to correct.

The Māori Electoral Options bill as introduced would have allowed Māori to change rolls at any time, up to and including on polling day, aside from around byelections. National - and Act - objected, calling for exceptions to be granted around general and local body elections also to prevent “tactical” roll switching.

At select committee, Labour refused to budge in granting further exceptions for general and local body elections.

After further discussions with National, however, Labour has agreed to make the changes requested to get the support needed to pass the bill.

A Labour spokesman said in a statement the exceptions for switching rolls will be: the three months before polling day for general and local body elections; and, for some Māori voters in an electorate where a parliamentary by-election occurs, in the period leading up to the by-election.

“Outside these periods Māori will be able to change rolls as they choose,” they said.

A Supplementary Order Paper adding these exceptions will be introduced today.

National Party justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith said the party were happy with the amendments and would now support the bill.

The bill is expected to pass its third reading in Parliament this week. The changes will come into effect on March 31 next year, allowing Māori voters time to change rolls before the 2023 General Election.

Māori voters will be notified prior to the three-month exception period of their right to change rolls.

More than 22,000 people tried to change rolls in the lead-up to the 2020 General Election.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi had a similar Members’ Bill drawn earlier this year from the ballot and said at the second reading his party would support this bill.

On a timeframe exclusion around a general election, Waititi said that was a “reasonable” request from National, but he also wanted to see the laws tightened for people who owned multiple homes from changing their electorates too.