Moko Tepania is calling on his community to demand FNDC holds a poll on Māori wards.
Moko Tepania is calling on his community to demand FNDC holds a poll on Māori wards.
A Far North District councillor is challenging his council's decision on Māori wards and calling on locals to demand a poll on the controversial topic – before February next year.
Moko Tepania (Te Rarawa/Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa) says if the poll was held before February 21, the wards could be in place for the next local government elections in 2022.
The Far North District Council (FNDC) last week voted to hold a poll on Māori wards, but not until the 2022 local government elections. An initial motion, seconded by Tepania, asked the council to bring in Māori wards.
Tepania is FNDC's Te Ao Māori lead and a member of the national executive of Local Government New Zealand Council subcommittee Te Maruata – a collective of Maori working in governance within local government and their communities.
He voted against the council's 6:4 decision for the 2022 polling, saying its results wouldn't have effect until the 2025 local government elections.
This was too far into the future, he said.
"Now is the time to act," Tepania said.
The Far North has one of New Zealand's highest Māori populations - 51 per cent of its people identify as Māori – compared with 16.5 per cent nationally and about 36 per cent across Northland as a whole.
Mayor John Carter said councillors were entitled to outline the law on polling.
"They have every right to make that call if they wish to," he said.
To demand a public-initiated poll on Māori wards, 2156 voters would have to agree, or 5 per cent of the district's 43,130 electors.
Far North District Mayor John Carter. Photo / Tania Whyte
When it last polled voters on the wards in 2015, 67 per cent voted against, 32 per cent for. That 32 per cent represented 4309 electors.
But Tepania said there was now more appetite for Māori local government wards including significant government interest in their establishment.
There were also Māori seats nationally and these had been part of New Zealand's recent national elections.
He said delaying the poll until the next local government elections risked the matter not being reconsidered until 2028, should results go against Māori wards.
Tepania said FNDC already had money put aside to run a poll in the current financial year.
A standalone poll would cost about $90,000. One done as part of the 2022 local body elections would cost about $9000.
He was comfortable with the $80,000 difference for a matter as important as Māori wards.
"Councillors decide on spending sums much greater than that all the time," Tepania said.
Tepania said 4309 Far North electors had already shown they were in favour of Māori wards in the 2015 council poll - more than the 2156 needed to demand a pre-February 21 poll.
The results of a citizen poll demand getting to council after February 21 next year wouldn't come into effect until 2025. A poll resulting from a pre-February 21 demand must be finished before May 21 to be ready in time for 2022.
Polling outcomes are binding on councils, regardless of whether they're initiated by the council or electors.
