of the debate over the future of the Māori electorates. National had a policy of abolishing the seats while the Māori Party wanted the seats entrenched in law. The Constitutional Review was agreed as a way to satisfy both parties. An advisory panel supported ministers Bill English and Pita Sharples, who were to make a final report to Cabinet by the end of 2013. The ministers' first report to Cabinet agreed on the make-up of the advisory panel, a plan for public engagement and how the review would interact with other government projects with a constitutional dimension, such as the referendum on MMP. On 4 August 2011 the make-up of the advisory committee was announced, with former Ngāi Tahu leader Sir Tipene O'Regan and former law professor and law commissioner John Burrows as co-chairs. Māori constitutional working group In 2010 the Iwi Chairs' Forum, a forum made up of people from iwi organisations across New Zealand set up a constitutional working group to create conversation with Māori how to develop a constitution for New Zealand from a Māori point of view. The Iwi Chairs' Forum directed the working party to frame the conversation based on He Whakaputanga (the 1835 Declaration of Independence), Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and principles of tikanga. Chaired by Margaret Mutu and convened by Moana Jackson, the working group held 252 meetings with Māori at marae and other settings between 2012 and 2015. The findings were launched in 2016 in a document called Matike Mai Aotearoa. See also Independence of New Zealand Politics of New Zealand Constitution of the United Kingdom, unwritten elements of which are incorporated into the New Zealand constitution Constitutionalism References Citations Bibliography External links Constitution Aotearoa New Zealand Constitutional Law Resources Cabinet Manual 2017 Constitutional Advisory Panel interim website Response of the Government to the Report of the Constitutional Arrangements Committee Better Democracy – Group advocating binding citizens-initiated referendums. New Zealand Political and constitutional timeline – NZHistory.net.nz John McSoriley, The New Zealand Constitution, New Zealand Parliamentary Library, 2005 Politics of New Zealand Government of New Zealand Law of New Zealand Uncodified constitutions