The Hastings District Council says videos of councillors espousing the benefits of Māori wards are a way to prevent the spread of misinformation about them, not a campaign to keep them.
Act’s local government spokesman, Cameron Luxton, disagrees and says the council needs to stop the rollout of the videos on the Hastings council’s official social media channels.
The Hastings District Council (HDC) introduced Māori wards in 2022 and has three Māori ward councillors on its 16-person council (15 councillors and the mayor).
There will be a referendum in this year’s local body elections, as required by the coalition Government, asking voters if councils should keep Māori wards or get rid of them.
On Tuesday, June 3, HDC posted a video of Deputy Mayor Tania Kerr promoting the benefits of Māori wards to the council’s followers.
“It’s no different to having rural wards,” Kerr said in the video.
“In the rural sector, rural people can vote for rural councillors and in the Māori world, I’d like to think it was the same – that Māori can vote for Māori councillors.”
On Thursday, June 5, HDC posted a video of Takitimu Māori ward councillor Ana Apatu, also promoting Māori wards.
“What Māori wards have done is bring in voices that might not have felt welcome before,” Apatu said in the video.
“It‘s not about division, it’s about living up to our local Treaty commitments and giving all communities a seat at the table.”
A spokeswoman for HDC said it had not had the content of the videos approved by the electoral officer, but the council was “comfortable” that they fit within the rules.
The spokeswoman said a further three similar videos of councillors talking about Māori wards on the council’s social media channels are “pencilled in”.
Act MP Cameron Luxton, the party’s local government spokesman, said, “ratepayers fund councils to fix roads and collect rubbish, not to campaign for race-based political seats”.
“If councillors want to promote Māori wards, they should do it on their own time and their own dime, not hijack the council’s official channels to push a divisive agenda,” Luxton said.
“Let the people decide. That’s the whole point of a referendum.”
A Hastings council spokeswoman said it rejected the suggestion that it is using official channels to campaign.
Instead, it was providing “factual, experience-based perspectives from elected representatives to support informed public participation in a government-mandated referendum”.
The spokeswoman said the videos were an opportunity to correct common misconceptions, such as the false claim that Māori ward councillors are appointed rather than elected.
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the social media videos were providing civic engagement.
“Our councillors are speaking openly about their experience of Māori representation to help voters understand what the Māori ward means in practice,” Hazlehurst said.
“The referendum asks our community to make a decision, and we believe that decision should be based on accurate information, not misinformation.
“We make no apology for encouraging respectful, informed public discussion. That’s what local democracy should be about.”
Hazlehurst said the HDC remained focused on core services, but the delivery of those services relies on understanding and reflecting the needs of the whole community.
“Inclusive, representative decision-making is not a distraction from core business; it strengthens it,” she said.
Both Local Government New Zealand and the HDC electoral officer were approached for comment, but both declined.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the past 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier.