Submitters back Maori wards

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

Opinion

Gisborne District Council hears submissions tomorrow on what is its first real effort to consider the establishment of Maori wards, drawing a line under successive councils where majority feeling has been that this region elects Maori candidates and doesn't need separate wards.

In reality, there has never been anything like a 50 percent share of Maori councillors to match our population — recent councils have had more like a third of members with Maori descent — and Maori wards are an obvious way to help achieve a better representative balance for our community.

The council completed its consultation last week, and a report for tomorrow's hearing says 67.6 percent of 275 online submissions confirmed they would like to see Maori wards established. There were also 18 formal submissions representing over 60 organisations, family trusts, iwi, hapu, marae and kura, and all but one were in favour of establishing Maori wards.

Key themes summarised in the report include: the council meeting its Treaty obligations for Maori in governance and decision-making; improving current levels of engagement with iwi, particularly at hapu level; acknowledgement of the impacts that decisions have on mana whenua throughout the district; and what is good for whanau, hapu, iwi and Maori is also good for Tairawhiti as a whole.

There is a hurdle to cross, though.

While Maori electorates have been a feature of national politics for more than 150 years, just three of the country's 78 local authorities have brought in Maori wards since a 2002 amendment of the Local Electoral Act allowed them to — Wairoa District Council (after 54 percent to 46 percent voted for their establishment in a poll run alongside the 2016 local-body election), and Bay of Plenty and Waikato regional councils.

This has not been for lack of trying by various councils. The hurdle is that the Act allows such a move to be challenged through a petition signed by just 5 percent of registered voters (no other ward can be challenged this way), and Hobson's Pledge — a lobby group opposed to alleged “Maori favouritism” — lies in wait to assist with public opposition campaigns.

Expect our council to decide at a meeting next Monday to establish Maori wards based on the Maori and General electoral populations of the district; expect a petition opposing it to be presented by February 22, 2021 with more than the requisite 1625 signatures; and then await a poll where hopefully the debate will be civil and a majority of us will support introducing Maori wards for the next two local-body elections.