Focus on Maori representation for Tauranga City Council

The potentially contentious issue of separate Maori representation on the Tauranga City Council kicks off today with Maori supporting change.

Mayor Stuart Crosby and five councillors sit down with six representatives from the city's Tangata Whenua Collective to discuss the pros and cons of establishing a separate city-wide Maori Ward.

Today's meeting of the Tangata Whenua/City Council Committee will be the first public airing of an option that comes along every three years when the shape of electoral representation was decided.

Previous councils have not supported bids for Maori to get their own representative but the clean-out of the old guard in last year's election meant the outcome was less certain this time. A paper written by the council's legal and governance manager Kirsty Downey-McGuire laid out the options the committee can recommend to the full council.

A council decision opposing a Maori ward could trigger a public-initiated process to force a poll on the issue. A poll required support from 5 per cent of electors enrolled for the 2013 council election, or 4237 people.

If a Maori Ward was introduced, it would mean that those on the Maori roll could not vote for the ward councillor who represented the area of the city they lived in. Otherwise nothing changed.

The agenda for today's meeting also contained a report from the Tangata Whenua Collective that was presented to an October 16 meeting with the council. It detailed key issues for Maori including demographic projections, employment and migration.

The data took a Bay-wide approach and concluded that although the population was aging, the high birth rate of Maori meant they would have a youthful population accounting for almost 40 per cent of people entering the work force.

"While most are unemployed and not in further education, the economic success of the region is directly linked to utilising Maori youth to address the predicted labour force shortages."

The paper argued that Maori representation would provide the upoko (head) that connected to the body (Tangata Whenua Collective). It would strengthen the Maori voice and demonstrate true partnership.

Maori wards or constituencies were in place for the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (three seats) and the Waikato Regional Council (two seats).

Ways to achieve a Maori ward
• Majority vote of the council
• A council-initiated poll of electors costing $170,000
• Electors-initiated poll (needs 5 per cent of electors demanding a poll)