Background In June 2022, the
Justice Minister Kris Faafoi of the incumbent
Labour Party introduced a bill to allow people of Māori descent to switch between the general and Māori electoral rolls at any time. At the time, Māori were only allowed to switch between the two rolls during a four month period every four to six years. To pass into law, the bill needed 75% majority support in Parliament. In addition,
Te Pāti Māori (Māori Party) co-leader
Rawiri Waititi introduced a member's bill which proposed automatically placing Māori on the Māori electoral roll and renaming the "general electoral district" the "non-Māori electoral district." During an in-committee parliamentary meeting held on 15 November 2022, the National and ACT parties agreed to support the Māori Electoral Option bill after the
Labour Government agreed to prohibit roll switching during the three month period before general and local elections and found an accepted definition for the "Māori electoral population;" giving the Government the 75% majority need to pass the bill into law. The Greens opposed these supplementary order changes while Te Pāti Māori abstained. Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Waititi and
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer criticised the changes, describing them as "second-rate" and a "half pie ka pai" respectively. The Bill passed its third and final reading on 16 November with the support of all parties in Parliament. Justice Minister Allan said that the Bill would abolish the prior policy of limiting the ability of Māori to switch rolls to a four-month period every five to six years. She also welcomed National and ACT's support for the Bill. National MPs
Paul Goldsmith,
Mark Mitchell, and ACT MP
Karen Chhour thanked the Government for addressing their concerns about the initial version of the legislation and supported the three-month electoral deadline for switching rolls. Despite Te Pāti Māori's support for the Bill, Ngarewa-Packer expressed regret that Parliament had not passed her colleague Waititi's alternative bill that would have allowed Māori voters to switch rolls at any time. Similar sentiments were expressed by Green MP Ghahraman.
Implementation The Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Act 2022 came into force on 31 March 2023; allowing people of Māori descent to switch between the general and Māori rolls at anytime until the three month period before elections. The
Electoral Commission subsequently launched a campaign to encourage non-voters to register with either the general or Māori rolls. For the
2023 New Zealand general election, the cutoff date was set at midnight 13 July 2023. By 3 July 2023, over 12,000 people had switched between the Māori and general rolls; with 6,662 people shifting from the general to Māori rolls and 5,652 switching vice versa. Political expert and academic Dr Rawiri Taonui and journalist Tommy de Silva described that the increase of voters on the Māori roll as a form of strategic voting that reinforced the relevance of the Māori seats and Māori vote to New Zealand politics. By 11 July 2025, the Electoral Commission confirmed that almost 31,000 voters had switched to the Māori electoral roll while over 25,000 first time voters had registered with the Māori roll. By contrast, about 20,000 Māori descent voters had switched to the general roll while 17,000 new voters had registered with the general roll. Commission chief Māori advisor Hone Matthews credited the law change with removing a barrier for Māori voters and boosting their electoral engagement. ==Notes and references==