Iwi vows fight for Super City seats

Ngati Whatua have not ruled out a second hikoi. Photo / The Aucklander

Ngati Whatua o Orakei spokesman Ngati Whatua leaders say they're not giving up the fight for Maori seats and a second hikoi through Auckland on the issue is a possibility.

Ngati Whatua o Orakei spokesman Ngarimu Blair said iwi leaders met yesterday to talk about options. As well as more protest action the hapu would be backing Tainui's stance to boycott advisory boards.

"This isn't the end as far as we're concerned. It's one more chapter in our long struggle. The Crown and the Auckland Council are strongly mistaken if they think we're going to slope back to our pa and sit and do nothing."

The Government yesterday ruled out creating Maori seats on Auckland's Super City council.

The decision ensured that Maori would continue to face historical hurdles over representation, Mr Blair said.

"We've recently had candidates stand [in Auckland] with some of the highest media profiles around - Willie Jackson and John Tamihere, and they didn't even come close.

"We have run, and the results show that the Pakeha majority don't vote for us, never have and still don't."

Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua's Naida Glavish said the Government's unequivocal no to Maori representation was a slap in the face.

The future looked "bland and unrepresentative", she said. "We are in for more of the same, representation from middle-class Pakeha that are fast becoming a minority and to date have shown precious little ability to make this city flourish."

Another iwi leader, Tame Te Rangi, said he would be organising meetings with Maori Party MPs to see how the parliamentary process could be used to push seats through.

The only council to entrench Maori seats said they served a practical purpose which other councils should not fear.

Since 2001 Environment Bay of Plenty has had three Maori seats. It remains the only local government body in the country to use them.

Chairman John Cronin said he was surprised nobody had approached the council to give its view on how the seats were working.

The seats allowed the council to formulate policy that worked for everybody, not just tangata whenua, he said.

"The Maori seats have worked well for us. I think there's a possibility that people have views on democracy and some of them are very valid but we are just a wee bit more pragmatic down the Bay of Plenty - we just want to get things done.

"We prefer to get things done by working together as against working behind closed doors."