Māori Party victory reminds everyone how MMP can transform NZ politics into  true Treaty partnership 

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The extraordinary wins for the Māori Party are historic and paradigm-shifting.

While the Specials remain to be counted, the scale and wave of the Māori Party win and its new increased influence in politics  has been generated by the new demographic realities of the Māori electorate where 70% of the population is under 40.

No where can the scale of that demographic shift be seen better than in the remarkable win by 21 year old Hana Maipi-Clarke against Nanaia Mahuta.

As we await the Specials, the unique features of the MMP overhang are in sharp focus and it is time for the Māori Party and the wider Left to think long and hard about the journey in front of us.

The ideas shaped in He Puapua to see Māoridom given the promises of Treaty Sovereignty has generated a cultural and political backlash as the Right successfully managed to frighten White NZ into believing it represented a secret agenda to steal NZ Democracy.

What the overhang shows us however is that there is a direct means within the current MMP rules that could actually deliver Māoridom that Treaty Sovereignty without actually requiring the painful and inflammatory fight He Puapua has descended into.