Hastings council takes down Māori wards videos after legal letter from Hobson’s Pledge

Hastings District Council has removed social media videos of councillors talking up the benefits of Māori wards after it received a legal letter from lobby group Hobson’s Pledge.

At the beginning of June, Hastings District Council (HDC) posted a video of Deputy Mayor Tania Kerr promoting the positive impact of Māori wards in the district to the council’s followers.

“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,” Kerr said in the video.

It also posted a video of Takitimu Māori ward councillor Ana Apatu espousing the good the wards have done.

“What Māori wards have done is bring in voices that might not have felt welcome before,” Apatu said in the video.

An HDC spokeswoman said at the time the council had not had the content of the videos approved by its electoral officer, but it was “comfortable” they fitted within the rules and four more were “pencilled in”.

But the videos are now gone from the council’s page.

The takedowns follow a letter from the lawyers of Hobson’s Pledge sent to HDC on Tuesday, June 10.

In the letter, Hobson’s Pledge’s lawyer Brigitte Morten said it was concerned HDC’s videos promoted the retention of Māori wards.

“It is indisputable that both posts advocate in favour of voting to retain Māori wards in the upcoming poll, and that they utilise council’s Facebook page to promote that message,” said Morten, a director at Franks Ogilvie.

Morten said the council should immediately take down the videos and undertake that no further council resources, including HDC’s Facebook page, would be used to promote material that favours any side in the upcoming election.

In the letter she referred to a 2004 case, Aukuso vs Hutt City Council, in which it was ruled that the use of public funds by the council to mount a publicity campaign that was non-neutral and advocated one particular poll answer amounted to an irregularity that could, depending on the facts, invalidate a local poll.

“It is clear from that guidance, and the court’s decision in Aukuso, that the same principle applies to local polls,” Morten said.

“In the same way that council resources should not be used to influence councillor or mayoral elections, they should not be used to influence the outcome of a poll,” the letter said.

“You are on notice that the publication of these posts (and any future communications of a similar nature) risk invalidating the poll. If the poll is invalidated, it will need to be re-run, resulting in great expense to ratepayers.”

The letter said Hobson’s Pledge did not seek to constrain elected councillors stating their views on the referendum, but it opposed the use of ratepayer funding to do so.

HDC deputy chief executive Bruce Allan said the videos were recorded and produced in-house and no expenses were incurred on preparation or production.

It was always HDC’s intention to delete the videos by June 30.

However, the videos had been removed earlier “in an abundance of caution, in response to the concerns raised”.

“Council prepared the videos to address misconceptions, particularly around things like a belief by some that Māori wards entitle a proportion of the community to two votes, to promote discussion on what is an important decision, and to raise awareness of the coming referendum,” Allan said.

Allan said HDC and its sister councils are preparing a regional campaign to promote the election and referendum and encourage people to participate, “as it always does”.

A spokesperson from the Office of the Auditor-General confirmed they had also received correspondence, understood to be from Hobson’s Pledge, related to the issue.

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin and Napier.