Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Hawke's Bay getting ready for new councils era

By Doug Laing
Hawkes Bay Today·
6 Jul, 2022 06:22 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council first-term member Hinewai Ormsby at Thursday's meeting encouraging prospective new candidates for this year's local elections. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hawke's Bay Regional Council first-term member Hinewai Ormsby at Thursday's meeting encouraging prospective new candidates for this year's local elections. Photo / Paul Taylor

A meeting to encourage and help aspiring Māori politicians considering being candidates at this year's local election has been held in groundbreaking but ironic times for councils in Hawke's Bay.

While the Hawke's Bay Regional Council, the Hastings District Council and Dannevirke-based Tararua District Council include Māori wards for the first time, at least three councillors who blazed the way in Māori representation at council tables in the province are standing down.

The three are five-term Hastings District Council Flaxmere ward member Henare O'Keefe, who is retiring, two-term Napier City Council member Apiata Tapine, who has moved to Wairoa, and two-term Hastings council member Bayden Barber, who in April was elected chairman of Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Inc.

It is Barber and aspiring second-term Hawke's Bay Regional Council member Hinewai Ormsby who were behind the meeting, which was held Thursday in the Hastings council chambers.

Available was what Barber calls a 90-page book completed just in time for the hui.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Bayden Barber, the Hastings councillor standing down to focus on his new iwi chairmanship, at a meeting for potential Maori candidates in this year's local elections. Photo / Paul Taylor
Bayden Barber, the Hastings councillor standing down to focus on his new iwi chairmanship, at a meeting for potential Maori candidates in this year's local elections. Photo / Paul Taylor

Nominations for the 2022 local elections open on July 15, with candidates having four weeks to get their names in before starting the campaigns leading-up to the elections, which will be by postal vote from September 16 to noon on October 8.

The big feature is the implementation of the Māori wards, including two Māori constituencies with a councillor each created in the regional council area, effectively being separate northern and southern reaches of the four local councils from Wairoa to Central Hawke's Bay.

The Hastings District Council and the Tararua District Council, which is in the Horizons (Manawatu-Whanganui) Regional Council area, have each chosen to have one Māori ward for the first time, while the Napier City, which had just effected an electoral system change at the 2019 elections, has deferred consideration of the issue until the new 2022-2025 term, as has the Central Hawke's Bay council.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Wairoa District Council at a poll alongside the 2016 elections decided on Māori ward membership which was implemented three years later. It had already had multiple elected Māori members, including eventual Māori Party parliamentary candidate Derek Fox as Mayor from 1995 to 2001.

Barber said the Thursday forum and the book he and Ormsby prepared was aimed at giving those aspiring to council positions the "tools" to know what they are in for and how to do the job.

"We have some unprecedented times and this is an opportunity to pass on how things happen. With these Māori wards for the first time, we need to make sure it's successful."

He expected candidates would come from "all sorts of backgrounds", not necessarily just those who had already cut their governance teeth on sports club, school or marae committees.

"People do need to go in with their eyes open to the work needed to serve their communities, which I am sure all will want to do."

He believes most who took part in the hui are prospective candidates, and the book that was provided while prepared for the Māori candidates is applicable to anyone considering standing.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP