P.M. expects four Maoris elected in general seats

Press, 23 June 1984, Page 3

P.M. expects four Maoris elected in general seats

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, expects to see four Maoris elected in general seats in the coming election.

Defending New Zealand’s race relations, he told journalists yesterday that such a move was evidence of the strength of the Maoripakeha relationship and an answer to critics of his party.

“When this election is over, the Labour Party will have the four Maori seats as they always have and I will have four Maori members, I believe, sitting in general seats,” he said. “In not one of those seats will there be anything like a majority of Maoris — the Maori population of any one of those seats would be 10 per cent or less.” , The four were NeSsrs Ben Couch in Wairarapa, Rex

Austin in Awarua, Winston Peters in Tauranga — “a safe National seat despite what the New Zealand Party says” — and Nelson Rangi in Tongariro, which was a marginal seat but where the sitting Labour member would stand as an Independent. “This is the reality of politics in New Zealand in terms of the Maori-pakeha relationship,” Sir Robert said.