Māori wards: Dame Naida Glavish calls for Kaipara mayor Craig Jepson’s resignation

Dame Naida Glavish (with loud hailer) speaks out against KDC removing karakia from the start of its council meetings in a 2022 protest march in Dargaville. Photo / NZME

Prominent Māori leader Dame Naida Glavish is calling for Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson to resign in the face of his push to scrap his council’s Māori ward.

Glavish, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whatua co-chair, said the mayor’s push to get rid of Kaipara District Council’s Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward this week was not acceptable.

Kaipara District Council (KDC) will potentially be the first council in the country to get rid of Māori wards under legislation passed last week.

“He needs to look in the mirror and remind himself which country he’s in,” Glavish said.

Dame Nadia Glavish at a Dargaville protest in 2022 against Mayor Craig Jepson not allowing a karakia at council meetings. Photo / Tania Whyte

In response, Jepson said he would not resign over his Māori ward push.

“I don’t think people should divided by race,” Jepson said.

He had been elected by a large majority on a plank that included better democracy for his people, he said.

“I have a mandate from my community,” Jepson said.

“I wish that New Zealanders would work together and we didn’t have these growing divisions,” Jepson said.

Jepson said everybody, including Glavish, was entitled to their opinion.

He said Glavish continued to label him as racist, but he was not.

Glavish said the ward’s likely removal was part of KDC’s push to wind back Māori participation, which began soon after Jepson’s election in October 2022.

Mayor Craig Jepson stood outside the council chambers during a hikoi over his karakia ban. Photo / Tania Whyte

The council made headlines in 2022 after karakia was removed from the start of council meetings.

Glavish was among opponents who spoke out against the move as part of a protest of more than 500 people in Dargaville in 2022.

The council is expected to can its Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward at an extraordinary meeting in Mangawhai on Wednesday.

Protest action is being planned against the move.

Former Kaipara mayoral candidate Paturiri Toatu (Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara) is calling on iwi and tauiwi from around Northland to join a peaceful protest outside the extraordinary council meeting in Mangawhai on Wednesday morning.

Toatu, who originates from Omamari, said he was organising the peaceful protest to express how tangata whenua and tauiwi were feeling.

He said Māori anger was growing over widespread coalition Government changes, which included enabling the removal of Māori wards before next year’s local elections.

Toatu, who will speak at Wednesday’s meeting, stood for the Kaipara mayoralty in 2019 and for KDCs first-time Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward in 2022.

At edition time, more than 6000 people had seen Toatu’s TikTok peaceful protest call.

The council’s likely Māori ward move has also angered Kaipara iwi Te Roroa – one of several iwi to walk out on Prime Minister Chirstopher Luxon at the national iwi chairs forum in Auckland last week.

Karakia protest organiser Paturiri Toautu. Photo / Tania Whyte

Te Roroa general manager Snow Tane said KDC’s likely Māori ward removal was a manifestation of the coalition government’s legislation changes affecting Māori, including with the Marine and Coastal area (Takutai Moana) Act, removal of Oranga Tamariki Act’s section 7AA and the Treaty Principles Bill.

Te Roroa chair Thomas Hohaia will be among a number of public forum speakers at the KDC meeting on Wednesday.

Tane said High Court action was among the options being considered by iwi in the wake of a KDC Māori ward removal decision.

He said the likely removal of KDC’s Māori ward was part of a procession of moves by the council to roll back tangata whenua involvement in its workings.

Te Uri o Hau settlement trust chair and trustee Reno Skipper will also address Wednesday’s meeting.

Meanwhile a two-day-old Change.org petition advocating for the KDC Māori ward’s retention at edition time had 500 signatures.

Hikurangi father Ben Pearce said he was Pākehā but organised the petition because he wanted his children to have an upbringing that reflected New Zealand.

Māori wards were essential basics of local government’s necessary consideration of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, Pearce said.

Democracy Northland spokesperson John Bain said he supported KDC’s potential Māori ward removal.

Bain would not be drawn on KDC doing this without a poll.

He has previously said polling was an essential part of the community being able to have its say on Māori wards.

Bain, who will speak at Wednesday’s meeting, said that if the Māori ward was removed, the Kaipara community would be able to have its say on any Māori candidate who chose to stand at the next election.

This would be on an even playing field because there would be no Māori ward.

Bain said the October 2025 local elections would effectively allow the Kaipara community to have the equivalent of a poll by having its say through whether or not it voted in Māori councillors, who would be standing in general wards, along with other candidates.

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