Napier council leads way in new Māori wards review

The Napier City Council, which is revisiting the Māori wards debate in haste in the wake of the legislation which passed the third reading in Parliament on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied.

The Napier City Council took less than 10 minutes on Thursday to decide on a new Māori wards consultation forced by law changes which were passed in Parliament on Tuesday.

One of a small number of councils planning to implement Māori wards in their representation structures at next year’s Local Elections – with most others already having Māori ward members - the Napier council decided unanimously on a “high-level engagement plan” to enable new decisions that it must make in just five weeks.

It follows the passing of the Local Government (Māori Wards) Amendment Bill which requires councils that brought in Māori wards without polling residents to stage a poll, or cancel the ones they had set up.

The Napier council has to decide by September 6 whether to reaffirm or revoke the decision it made in 2021 to introduce at least one Māori Ward at the triennial elections in 2025.

It will step up public consultation with submissions to close at 5pm on August 22, to provide an opportunity for the community to identify their preference and provide feedback.

Council project manager strategy and transformation Jane McLoughlin told council Napier was in a group of 8-10 councils that had made decisions to introduce Māori wards in 2025.

There are two other groups - one, including Wairoa, having introduced Māori wards prior to 2021, and the other being those that made decisions in 2021 to introduce Maori wards at the 2022 elections.

Napier, which did not have to conduct its six-yearly representation review until the current election cycle, is currently consulting on a proposal to cut the number of councillors from 12 to 11 and establish a Māori ward of two members, along with reshaping the general ward structure to create three wards of three councillors each.

If the council decides to reaffirm the previous decision, a binding poll must on the continuation of a Māori ward for following elections must be held alongside the 2025 elections.

But if it decides to revoke the 2021 decision, it must then decide whether it retains the current structure of four wards, as implemented at the 2019 election, or undertakes a shortened representation review with an initial proposal due by September 13.