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In a week in which the Government launched another action plan, the action that counts most for many is the announcement the Prime Minister told us was coming this week and arrived yesterday.\xa0

Local councils and M\u0101ori seats.\xa0

A lot of the overlay around this Government, involving all three parties, is about the M\u0101orification of this country.\xa0

It has been shockingly destructive, and councils have led, and been allowed to lead the way when it comes to simple racism.\xa0

Policies based on race are racist.\xa0

Polices that advance one race over another are racist.\xa0

Despite that, they have not only gone ahead, but been encouraged to go ahead.\xa0

The law that let the community hold a vote on M\u0101ori seats was disbanded. That alone was undemocratic, but it was disbanded because the results were always the same.\xa0

When a vote was held no one wanted race-based seats. Why? Because New Zealanders are inherently fair.\xa0

This was all predicated on the idea that in a democracy somehow M\u0101ori were denied the right to stand, when in fact no such restriction was ever in place.\xa0

Like everyone else, M\u0101ori can stand for boards and councils and committees and Parliament. Top to bottom, democracy is an open field in this country and that is what needs to be treasured, nurtured, encouraged and preserved.\xa0

What made yesterday's announcement even more effective is councils will be made to hold votes on recent seats that they didn\u2019t hold votes on, and if they don\u2019t want to hold a vote the seat gets scrapped.\xa0

Brilliant. That was a step I suspect many didn\u2019t think would be coming.\xa0

Some councils will gnash their teeth but what councils forget is they represent their community, and, on this issue, they have been wildly out of step.\xa0

To get where we have got to democracy has been gerrymandered, the way it is gerrymandered in countries we hold great suspicions about.\xa0

We are better than that. And yet the previous Government, in cahoots with ideologues on councils with more important things to deal with, held us to ransom and shoved it down your throats.\xa0

When a Government restores democracy, driven by common sense, that\u2019s a Government on the right track.\xa0

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