Key facts
- At least nine new Maori MPs are expected to join the 55th parliament, according to preliminary results.
- Nearly 400,000 votes, around 14% of the total, remain to be counted before final results are announced on November 27.
- Maori unemployment stands at 10.9%, compared with 5.7% nationally, the report said.
- Maori make up roughly 17.5% of New Zealand's population, according to government data.
- Newly elected Green MP Tania Waikato, 47, said her main focus is entrenching the Treaty of Waitangi.
- Green MP Tamatha Paul, 29, said she hopes this generation of Maori politicians is willing to do something equally transformational.
At least nine new Maori MPs are expected to join New Zealand's 55th parliament, according to preliminary results reported on November 15, 2026, building on the record Maori representation elected in 2023. Among them is Tania Waikato, 47, a lawyer newly elected as a Green MP who spent three years using social media to challenge what she saw as the government's assault on New Zealand's founding document and to encourage people to vote.
Preliminary results show the incumbent National-led coalition holding a narrow majority, although nearly 400,000 votes, around 14% of the total, remain to be counted before final results are announced on November 27. Waikato said her main focus is to work towards the entrenchment of Tiriti, the Treaty of Waitangi, adding that from opposition it would be extremely difficult given the bills being progressed that undermine it.
The Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 by the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs, sits at the heart of New Zealand's political and legal debate. Its English and Maori texts differ in important ways. Maori communities continue to experience poorer economic and social outcomes, with unemployment at 10.9%, compared with 5.7% nationally, the report said.
Lara Greaves, an associate professor of politics at Victoria University of Wellington, said there has been a generational shift. "They feel proud to be Maori, they feel like they stand up for Maori culture and Maori political rights," she said. "That's kind of changing the landscape." Maori make up roughly 17.5% of New Zealand's population and are expected to increase to 20% by 2038, with a third of New Zealand's children being Maori, according to government data.