Te Pāti Māori puts te reo on its voter menu as Hipkins rules out a Treaty watchdog that could halt Cabinet

Te Pāti Māori has launched an online tool called "What Matters to You?". It asks voters to pick their three biggest priorities from a list, then gives them a summary of the party's policies in those areas. According to Waatea News, the list includes te reo Māori and mana motuhake, alongside the cost of living, housing, health, education, the environment and justice.

The party says it takes less than a minute and that users' choices aren't saved or sent anywhere. Co-leader Rawiri Waititi told Waatea the idea is to change how parties talk to voters, so whānau can start from their own concerns instead of working through dense policy documents.

The summaries come from Te Pāti Māori's own manifesto. Waatea points out that they aren't an independent assessment of whether the policies would work, what they would cost or whether they could be delivered. The report also doesn't say what the party is actually promising on te reo.

Treaty institutions

The party's constitutional proposals are better documented. The New Zealand Herald reports that Te Pāti Māori wants an independent Te Tiriti Commission, set up as an Officer of Parliament. It could investigate Crown decisions for compliance with Te Tiriti, report breaches straight to Parliament, and stop or suspend executive decisions where it finds a serious breach.

The party also wants Waitangi Tribunal findings to be binding on the Crown, with set timeframes, reporting requirements and court enforcement where needed. In government, the Herald reports, it would restart work on a national action plan to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples within its first 100 days, and set up a Mātike Mai Fund to pay for an independent Mātike Mai secretariat.

Labour's answer

Labour's reply, reported in the same Herald article, is the clearest statement so far of where Chris Hipkins stands on Māori institutions. He said constitutional reform wasn't something Māori voters had raised with Labour. "They are concerned about the cost of living, about healthcare; they are concerned about homes."

On the commission, he was blunt. Labour would not support a commissioner that could suspend Cabinet decisions. "Ultimately, the Parliament has to be the final decision-making body; not a judicial body."

Labour MP Willie Jackson has said before that Tribunal findings shouldn't be binding because "you would wreck the country financially", the Herald reports.

NZ First minister Shane Jones called the policy "backward-looking" and "an unnecessary burden on our economy". He told the Herald: "I fear it would further politicise the Treaty."

A party asking for half a vote

On Sunday 4 October Te Pāti Māori announced a one-person party list, RNZ reported in a story republished by Te Ao Māori News. General secretary Lance Norman is the only extra list candidate. The party is asking supporters to give it their electorate vote and their party vote to Labour or the Greens.

So the party is sending its supporters' party votes to a Labour leader who has just ruled out one of its main Treaty proposals.

Hipkins's reading of Māori voters' priorities has some support in the polling. In a Whakaata Māori-Curia poll of 500 Māori voters in Waiariki, Te Ao Māori News reported, 32% named the cost of living as the biggest issue. Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the environment were each named by 6%. Curia also polls for the National Party and the Taxpayers' Union.

But that is one electorate.

The election is on 7 November.