The Māori wards legislation may have passed in Parliament, but that doesn’t mean councils have to abandon local democracy.
Yesterday RNZ reported that five Whangarei District Councillors are challenging their council’s decision to introduce Māori wards.
This needs to happen at councils across the country. The nine councils that chose to establish Māori wards for 2022 did so with the reasonable expectation that the decision would be subject to a binding referendum. Now that the Government has disabled the petitions to initiate referenda, those decisions should be revisited.
Councillors don’t need to go so far as abandoning Māori wards – they can simply vote to initiate a referendum themselves, and commit to honouring its result. This compromise is more likely to achieve support across the council table than scrapping the whole proposal.
The legislation to disable Māori ward petitions was a Wellington-driven push to safeguard left-leaning majorities on local councils. Councillors shouldn’t abandon local democracy to appease Nanaia Mahuta.
Here are the councils that asked the Government to disenfranchise you
The following local councils lobbied the Government to disable referenda petitions on Māori wards:
- New Plymouth District Council
- Nelson City Council
- South Taranaki District Council
- Rotorua Lakes Council
- Ruapehu District Council
- Taupo District Council
- Whanganui District Council
- Northland Regional Council
- Opotiki District Council
- Waikato Regional Council
- Wellington City Council
- Wairoa District Council
- Gisborne District Council
- Bay of Plenty Regional Council
- Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Maori Committee
- Kapiti Coast District Council
You can find all these submissions here. Not a single local council submitted against the legislation.
Some of the statements made by council representatives are quite remarkable, with many suggesting the legislation doesn’t go far enough.
Some councils claim to be concerned about the one-off cost of a referendum. The Taxpayers’ Union is notoriously tough on council spending, but even we wouldn’t justify restricting democracy on the basis of dollars and cents!
Read for yourself:
“Māori Wards are a start … but they are not good enough”
Amanda Clinton-Gohdes, Councilor, New Plymouth District Council
Video submission, 0:10 – 5:55
“If we are honoring Te Tiriti, we are looking at a co-governance structure and that is 50/50 representation”
Teri O’Neil, Councillor, Wellington City Council
Video submission, 19:45 – 25:38
“Of course, it’s (cancelling a poll on Māori Wards) going to save us $80K-$100K as well”
David Trewavas, Mayor, Taupo District Council
Video submission, 2:32:10 – 2:40:21
“You’re right we don’t need them (Wairoa’s Māori Wards)”
Craig Little, Mayor, Wairoa District Council
Video submission, 2:14:25 – 2:25:35
“And I eagerly await the second wave of legislative changes that Minister Mahuta has indicated will occur”
Lyn Resiterer, Mayor, Opotiki District Council
Video submission, 0:05 – 9:15
“In 2014 NPDC resolved to establish a Māori ward for the first time. A petition was organised within the community, a subsequent poll overturned the Council’s decision in 2015”
New Plymouth District Council
Written submission
“We committed to continue to expand the decision-making roles of Māori at our Council and this is occurring through appointments to committees and sub-committees of Council. These appointments all hold voting rights.”
Nelson City Council
Written submission
“The establishment of Māori wards and constituencies promotes democracy”
Waikato Regional Council
Written submission
“For Māori to have representation in Council decision-making, a mix of mechanisms needs to be implemented. The establishment of Māori wards is only one part of this package of mechanisms.”
Taupo District Council
Written submission
“If the Bill is not enacted, we will be required to conduct a poll by 21 May 2021 at a cost of approximately $240,000.”
Northland Regional Council
Written submission
“Matters of representation and relationships must be addressed in a deliberative manner that employs balanced and considered dialogue, contextualisation and appreciation of local issues and circumstances – not by poll.”
Gisborne District Council
Written submission
What a load of tosh.
Here at the Taxpayers’ Union, we see it as our role to highlight and expose what our local “representatives” are saying behind closed doors. The best tool to stop madness is sunlight. All the best,
 |  Louis Houlbrooke Campaigns Manager New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union |
The submission from KCDC was actually a letter from our present mayor and it is unknown if he ever discussed it with the full council: we do know that the KCDC last year chose not to have a Maori ward. We know, too, that Kapiti’s iwi don’t get on all that well — see the posts from Apihaka Mack of Ngatiawa ki Kapiti who also don’t get on well with KCDC.
The present mayor was a member of the radical group Nga Tamatoa and this theme has been his hot button for over four decades —Eds.
The Kapiti’s mayor’s support for removing the right of ratepayers to petition against separate Maori wards is based on an incorrect interpretation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The 1840 Treaty gave no guarantee for separate Maori representation on local bodies and KCDC has no obligations under the Treaty. Maori people like those of any other ethnicity have the right to stand for election to Councils around the nation and Guru will recall that Porirua had a Maori mayor a few years back. Te Tiriti gave the Maori equal rights, but not special rights. Allowing Maori wards to go unchallenged is separatist and undemocratic.
Wish people would speak/write in English rather than peppering everything with a few maori words that few understand.
Offical language or not.
The obvious answer is to give translations — not doing so is actually rather rude.