Maori & National

National have announced that they have selected Joanne Hayes as their candidate for . Congrats to Joanne. Joanne is the Chief Executive of Ngai Tai O Te Awa Trust.

Last weekend Georgina te Heuheu announced her retirement. Georgie became a National MP in 1996, and off memory was the only National MP who was of Maori descent.

Today National has eight of Maori descent. On top of that National's candidates in Northland, and Dunedin South are of Maori descent. And on current polling they could all well become MPs via the party list if they do not win their .

This has all happened with no .

What is remarkable isn't so much that National is selecting so many Maori candidates, but that so many Maori are making themselves available to stand for National. 20 years ago it was near unthinkable.

UPDATE: And to further make my point, has just been selected as the candidate. 11 out of 63 candidates in seats are Maori.

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