by Geoffrey Churchman

The above table from this report shows the numbers of submitters to the proposal in each town with the dark blue bars showing opponents and the yellow bars supporters.

Although the Apartheid parties will be pleased, in Kapiti it’s not quite the straightforward situation that it has been elsewhere.

Despite being dominated by management Leftists, Kapiti was one of the councils that didn’t adopt a Maori ward in 2021 and the reason given by the then ‘Group Manager’ Janice McDougall was that Kapiti had “strong partnerships” with local iwi so didn’t need one. Those strong partnerships, however, are only with three iwi of the several that are represented in Kapiti — Raukawa, Ngati Awa and Toa. Together the three “mandated” iwi represent only 15% of Maori on the Coast — so who represents the other 85%? Two major iwi that are not included in this group — to their considerable chagrin — are Ngatiawa Tai Kapiti and Muaupoko.

But in June last year the then council decided it would appoint a representative of each of the ‘big 3’ iwi as committee members — and speaking rights at the council table — on full councilor salaries, adding $135,000 to the council’s annual salary costs. I wrote about it in this post.

For this reason, unlike Roger Childs and John Robinson, I had qualified support for the ward proposal as I saw it as a way for the council to extricate itself from the unsatisfactory situation it has created for itself. A ward councilor would be elected by all those on the Maori electoral roll, not appointed by the elites of only 3 iwi. A councilor is subject to a code of conduct, one of the most important provisions of which is that if they fail to attend 3 successive council meetings then under the local government act, they can be removed from office.

With one notable exception, the diligence shown so far by the iwi appointed committee members has been very poor and under the present situation there are no sanctions for that which can be applied officially. Furthermore, an elected councilor has to show that they deserve to be reelected based on their track record of achievements. (Of course, some councilors get re-elected simply because of their incumbancy as we’ve seen in several cases).

The latest council decision isn’t necessarily the final word as it’s quite possible the new government will remove the ban instituted by Nanaia Mahuta on citizens-initiated referenda to overturn such decisions on Maori wards. (The provision remains in place for other matters.)

So a representation review gets triggered and that will take place next year.

A Maori ward may exist for two terms and then hopefully, for the reasons given by others for abolishing electoral apartheid, it will be disestablished. There is no justification for having one, as a Maori ward councilor will have to vote for the interests of all Kapiti citizens and will not be able to take part in votes on matters for which a conflict of interest situation exists.