Good question. Anyone who is part or all Māori can choose whether they vote for the Māori electorate or the general electorate. As for services, I don’t know. If I had to guess, you’d have to be a member of an iwi (tribe) or at least be part Māori. But there are services for everyone; it’d be Māori-based services that would be aimed at Māori. They have different cultural values and methods, so it’s more the way the services are provided rather than the services themselves.

For example, during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, there was some discussion about Māori wanting to have their whole whānau (family) vaccinated at the same time because it’s seen as a collective measure and followed cultural Māori family values. At the time, they were being rolled by age, so some people in a family could get it while others couldn’t. There are valid discussions to be had for both methods.