Horizons Regional Council fears the Government’s plans to implement ways to get rid of Māori representation in local government, via Māori wards, will seriously test the relationship between local councils and their iwi and hapū constituents.
Horizons’ councillors have this week been debating a submission to the Government’s Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies Amendment Bill, which passed its first reading on May 23.
Horizons has talked about the amendments with its iwi and hapū prior to their discussion on their submission to Parliament’s select committee.
As it currently stands the amendment, if passed, will require Horizons to either disestablish its Māori constituencies prior to the 2025 local body elections or hold a binding poll at that 2025 election with the outcome to be applied for the 2028 local body elections.
Horizons said that having Māori constituencies allows for greater Māori representation at a governance level and iwi and hapū are unanimously in favour of better representation in local government, but have been denied a say in the proposed changes.
Responses from iwi and hapū can be summarised as ‘please retain Māori seats’, with Ngāti Raukawa stating that: “True partnership requires Māori to be represented at decision-making tables”.
Four iwi and hapū responded immediately (Rangitane o Manawatū, Ngāti Pareraukawa and Ngāti Raukawa) and since May 21 seven other tangata whenua parties have met council staff and leadership to ask Horizons to oppose the bill.
During the long-term plan submissions process only one submitter talked about Māori seats and said they hoped these would continue.
Horizons will argue that the proposed bill lacked proper consultation with relevant authorities. “Governance issues are best addressed by local government and the proposed bill will test the relationship between council and their constituent iwi and hapū groups,” it said in its agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.
In its documents on Māori representation from May 19, 2021, Horizons said: “Māori constituents would complement measures to fulfill the broad and ongoing obligations council has to build strong, effective, and respectful relationships with mana whenua in the region”.
Councillors David Cotton, Gordon McKellar and Jim Edmonds voted against the draft submission letter. Cotton and McKellar also voted against the plan to delegate officers to finalise the submission and to note if the bill passes into law they will need to review the wards.
One of Horowhenua’s representatives on the council, Sam Ferguson, said Horizons would send a letter to the select committee stating it is not supporting the proposed changes.
“This is not treating everyone the same. Māori wards and Māori voters are being singled out for a referendum, while each council has always had the power to establish wards it felt it needed without the need for any referendum. It is also an over-reach from central government.”
Horowhenua’s other representative, Emma Clarke, who did not attend this meeting, said all Māori ward representatives were democratically elected to be around the council table. “They bring a richness to our discussion that is amazing,” she said.
“In the past I have said that I could understand where people who felt these wards were not democratically established were coming from, but these councillors are elected by their voters and bring a lot to the table.”
Cotton, a Whanganui-based councillor, said the reason behind his vote was simple.
“I have maybe an old-school belief that the people should decide, and I am here to represent the people,” he said.
“The iwi constituents that have been in place are doing a good job but it is not for just eight people – eight people is the [council] majority – to tell 240,000 residents what is or isn’t the right way for governance.”
Cotton said Māori wards needed to sell the message and work they had done and get community support behind them. He would have preferred for the Government tackle the issue now.
“Yes, there is a cost to it but get it dealt with and everybody knows where they are.”
Whanganui’s other representative Alan Taylor said Māori were an incredibly important part of the council’s decision-making process.
He said Mātauranga Māori sat alongside Western science when making good decisions about the environment. Denying Maori seats would “truncate the opportunites for those views to come forward”.
“It’s not a given that this bill will remove Māori seats, unless we as a council reverse our policy on them, but it would be a long bow to draw to suggest they would survive a poll in such an unbalanced environment,” Taylor said.
“More importantly, these people have been here for 1000 years and to continue to deny them because of colonial processes which have disadvantaged them, I think is perpetuating the kinds of wrongs we’ve seen in this country.”
In the draft submission, Horizons makes the following observations: “Introduction of Māori constituencies has been a key factor in strengthening relationships across the more than 30 iwi and over 100 hapū in the region.
“Council has enjoyed the diversity in governance-level thinking and further enlightenment of the wider organisation on navigating the array of iwi and hapū relationships throughout our region.”
Horizons said it believes Māori are still generally under-represented in comparison to their proportion of the population - 16.5 per cent - and that those voters, who are enrolled on the Māori roll, have had no input in the proposed changes.
Horizons said: “The current legislation corrects inequities between the processes, removing unfair provisions that are creating barriers to Māori participation in local government decision making”.
It has heard “a clear preference for tangata whenua to be involved in decision making at the local level, as an expression of their tino rangatiratanga.”
- NZME