New Zealand’s Own Indigenous ‘Voice to Parliament’ Has Failed Maoris: Advocate

A Maori poses for a photograph ahead of the ANZAC Day parade in Sydney, Australia, on April 25, 2021. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

In a warning to Australians set to vote on altering their Constitution, New Zealander Casey Costello says her country’s own Indigenous “Voice to Parliament” has not had the desired effect and has become a burden on its democracy.

Costello, part-Maori and Anglo-Irish, is the founding trustee of the Hobson’s Pledge, said the Waitangi Tribunal, established in 1975 to give Maoris a greater voice in Parliament, has been unsuccessful.