Meanwhile the actual Prime Minister, Bill English, gets down to serious business when he and a raft of ministers meet the iwi leaders forum on Friday. You can see why iwi leaders would want that arrangement in the Bill. With very few exceptions, councils have resisted creating Maori wards, thus burying Maori votes in the majority so there is not a proportionate Maori voice. That has been in abeyance while National has been gifted Maori votes by proxy through the Maori party's tenure of Maori seats. So, it might be said, there is water to flow under the constitutional bridge.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 30, 2017 17:07 UTC