Hawke’s Bay voters decide to remove Māori wards on four councils from 2028 in referendums

Despite an election referendum rally supporting the retention of Māori wards in Napier on Thursday, the majority of voters in Napier, Hastings, CHB and the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council voted against keeping them. Photo / Doug Laing

Hawke’s Bay voters on four different councils have all voted to remove their Māori wards in 2028.

With all votes except Saturday’s and the special votes counted, each of Central Hawke’s Bay District Council, Hastings District Council, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Napier City Council had opted to remove the wards.

Some councils around New Zealand had opted to keep them, including Wellington, where the council described the vote to keep them as “resounding”.

The referendums were spurred by the Government’s passing of the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2024.

This reinstated the requirement that councils must hold referendums before establishing Māori wards, which the previous Labour Government had removed.

Act leader David Seymour campaigned for the bill, which he hoped would repeal the “race-based” local government equivalent of the Māori parliamentary electorates.

Seymour said on the campaign trail in 2023 that Labour had attempted to force undemocratic Māori wards on “communities that do not want them” and had engineered favouritism based on whakapapa and iwi representation.

A pressure group trying to keep Māori wards sprung up in Hawke’s Bay, making thousands of “For Wards Hawke’s Bay” signs and organising marches of support for them.

For Wards Hawke’s Bay member Mark Cleary said there had been months of great conversations around the region and, despite these results, Hawke’s Bay was much further along the road towards being a fairer community with more inclusive councils.

“Our mayors, councillors and community leaders have shared their personal, often powerful stories, of how bringing the voices of Māori into the decision-making process has enriched all our lives,” Cleary said.

“We’ll keep having those conversations and have no doubt our community will come on the journey with us.”

Co-ordinator Neill Gordon said there would always be steps forward and steps back, but the trajectory was clear.

“We are steadily moving towards understanding our past and building a better future. With the 200th centenary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi just 15 years away, it’s good to be on the journey together.”

Wairoa was the only council in Hawke’s Bay that was not part of the nationwide referendum.

In 2019, the council became the first in New Zealand with a specific Māori ward as a result of a poll at the local elections three years earlier.

This meant it had already conducted a successful referendum on its wards and did not need to do so again.

CHB Māori ward vote

Votes to keep: 1931

Votes to remove: 2944

Hastings

Votes to keep: 10,443

Votes to remove: 11,759

Napier

Votes to keep: 7162

Votes to remove: 10,067

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council

Votes to keep: 20,236

Votes to remove: 24,507

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.