Hamilton Māori ward candidate Maria Huata is "baffled" that so many districts have voted Māori wards out. Photo / Supplied
By Pokere Paewai of RNZ
Māori councillors are taking stock of the results of referendums on Māori wards, with some looking at the positives and others are left “baffled” by the results.
Preliminary results from the 2025 local government elections show 24 districts voted to scrap their Māori wards, while 18 voted to keep them.
However, margins in some regions are razor thin and could change, once the official results are released on Friday.
For example, in the Horizons Regional Council, “keep” votes are ahead by 123, and in Ruapehu District they are ahead by 90.
Hamilton Māori Ward candidate Maria Huata was provisionally re-elected to the council at the weekend, and the city also looks set to hold on to its Māori ward with “keep” votes ahead by more than a thousand.
But all districts surrounding the city voted to remove their Māori wards, including Waikato District, Waipā District and Matamata-Piako District.
Huata said she was “absolutely over the moon” about the result in Hamilton, but “baffled” that so many of its neighbours had voted Māori wards out.
“If you look at the history of representation within our council of Hamilton from the time it was a borough to now, there have only been six Māori representatives in a history of 185 years. So that tells us that we actually really, really need Māori wards to ensure Māori representation.”
The ultimate goal was that eventually there was no need for Māori wards, she said.
“That might sound quite controversial, but to be able to have a even playing field where there are Māori that are standing up for council in all wards, whether they be Māori, east, west, rural, whatever wards exist within your takiwā and your district, that we have a stronger, more apparent and pakari, solid representation of Māori standing up and putting themselves forward.”
Huata said the future of Māori representation will be secured when Māori had the confidence and the backing to stand in all different wards, Māori or otherwise.
“And then you will see that the system that was set up to exclude us, that we’ve clocked it.”
That hinged on getting more Māori out to vote, she said.
“Here in H-town, Kirikiriroa, we have 15,000 Māori enrolled on the electoral roll and 3000 turned out. So why aren’t the other 12,000 turning out?
“There’s a whole slate of reasons in terms of the broken system, that the electoral system has to be updated, that we don’t see ourselves standing in those positions. So we think, ‘Does my voice matter? Will it count?‘ And it does.”
In Taranaki, Māori wards across the entire region were voted down, a result New Plymouth district-wide councillor Dinnie Moeahu said he expected.
“What I didn’t expect was across Taranaki as a region to have such a momentous shift towards people further understanding what a Māori ward is, the benefits of it and the percentages, the increase since the last referendum. To me, that’s progress.”
In New Plymouth, 41.8% of voters for the district council voted to keep Māori wards – when the city voted on establishing a Māori Ward in 2015, it was voted down resoundingly, with only 17% in favour.
Māori wards and constituencies were first enabled under an amendment to the Local Electoral Act 2001. But if 5% of residents disagreed with the decision to establish a Māori ward, they could trigger a binding referendum to overturn it.
In the next 20 years, only three councils were ever successful in establishing a Māori ward or constituency.
When the Labour Government removed the 5% provision, there was a flood of councils establishing Māori wards.
Moeahu said it gave more Māori the courage to stand for council, whether that be general or Māori wards.
As for what the future of Māori wards will look like, he said all councils across the country will continue to conduct representation reviews every six years as demographics change.
“Until the law changes or until there’s another shift or amendments made to the Local Government Act, this will be the process that all communities will have to deal with.
“What I’m grateful for is that based on what’s happened since 2001 to where we are now, I can only be hopeful that we’ll continue to see the steady progression moving towards a more Te Tiriti-centric role that we all can play.”
With each passing year more and more people were becoming educated on what Māori representation was, and education was the key to that shift, he said.
“I just think for communities who are feeling disappointed, it’s understandable. But this is what we are living in now and I just think I’m so hopeful for the future based on the progress that we’ve had.
“And also that we have another term where Māori ward councillors get to continue to add value and contribute to better decision making at the council table ... the ebbs and flows of this Māori ward journey. It will continue. It won’t stop.
“I’m so proud of Aotearoa for having some difficult conversations, but still seeing the dial move towards progress as a nation.”
– RNZ