Change in government heralds referendum on Māori wards

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne District Council voters will have a referendum at the 2025 local body election to decide whether to retain the Māori wards.

That is the result of a policy announcement made yesterday by the newly sworn-in coalition Government.

The policy states:

“Restore the right to local referendum on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards, including requiring a referendum on any wards established without referendum at the next local body elections.”

Gisborne District Council’s last election in 2022 returned four Tairāwhiti Māori Ward councillors as well as eight Tairāwhiti General Ward councillors.

That was after councillors voted in 2020 to introduce Māori Ward(s) for the 2022 and 2025 elections.

No referendum was held.

Previously it was possible for a council decision introducing Māori wards to be overturned in a referendum triggered by petitions that gathered 5 percent of electors.

In 2012 the Labour Government abolished that right.

Supporters of the abolition of a possible referendum argued the policy was racist because it was not possible to petition for a referendum on general wards or rural wards.

Since the 2019 local body elections Wairoa District Council has had a Māori ward (three councillors) and a general ward (three councillors)

Wairoa conducted a poll alongside the 2016 election where electors voted 54 percent to 46 percent in favour of establishing Maori wards.

At the 2022 local body elections, six of the country’s 11 regional councils (54.5 percent) have Māori constituencies and 29 of the 67 territorial authorities (43.3 percent) have Māori wards.