Napier council to decide on Māori wards pathway

Napier mayor Kirsten Wise, whose council now faces one of its biggest decisions. Photo / Paul Taylor

The Napier City Council on Wednesday will decide whether it will have Māori-elected councillors at its table from the 2025 local elections.

The decision debate and decision follows a hearing of submitters which started on Monday and ended early Tuesday and was the first stage of process setting the path for the council's next representation review in 2023-2024, when the council will consider how to incorporate Māori wards if it has been decided such representation should be included.

Recent consultation drew 1314 submissions, of which 54.4 per cent were against the establishment of Māori wards, but almost of about 40 who addressed the full council hearing were in favour, amid some criticism of the way the council had dealt with the issue in May, when just over 30 councils decided to put in place Māori wards for the next elections in October next year.

The Napier council, which had instituted a new structure of four district wards at the last election in 2019, was one of more than 30 which have deferred the decision to their next round of representation reviews.

Councils are required to undertake representation reviews at least once every six years.
On the opening day, former high school principal Mark Cleary, who is also secretary of the Napier Pilot City Trust, told the council a "Yes" vote was its only option.

He said the council throughout history had failed "abysmally" to honour the Treaty of Waitangi, and said: "Māori have been systematically stripped of their land and denied opportunities to share in economic prosperity. If we are to flourish and grow in the ways you detail in our Long-Term Plan, inclusion and genuine power-sharing is essential."

Māori leaders castigated the council for the delay, and highlighted how at times of need, such as throughout the Covid crisis and the Napier flood and aftermath at the end of this year, their organisations had hit the front-line to serve "all of the community", and that it was time for such input to be recognised with a genuine role in the decision-making processes.