For three decades the Waitangi Day focus has been on rights for Maori. John Key goes to his first Waitangi Day celebrations as Prime Minister next Friday. Will he shift the focus?
Key’s deal with the Maori party has raised National hopes of detaching Maori voters from Labour.
Plenty of Maori do vote National. They are a fair proportion of the one-third of Maori voters who stick with the general roll. John Carter, MP for Northland which has a high Maori population, attributes much of his majority to Maori on his electorate’s roll.