Kaipara District Council votes to disestablish Māori ward

Kaipara District Council has voted to disestablish its Māori ward, becoming the first council to do so under new rules.

In a tense meeting, councillors voted 6 to 3 in favour of disestablishing the Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward. Councillor Rachael Williams abstained.

Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson, deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen and councillors Gordon Lambeth, Mike Howard, Ron Manderson and Ash Nayyar voted for the removal of the ward ahead of the next local elections in October 2025. Protesters outside the meeting erupted into a haka and banged on the meeting venue walls.

Māori ward councillor Pera Paniora and councillors Mark Vincent and Eryn Wilson-Collins voted against the removal.

Jepson said he was elated at the decision.

Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson at Kaipara District Council meeting on Maori wards. Photo / Michael Craig

He hoped a wave would start across other councils in New Zealand.

He hoped Kaipara could now move forward constructively,

“I reject the notion that Māori must have a designated ward to ensure representation,” Jepson said.

“The establishment and need for Māori wards relies on a false narrative.”

Jepson said that protesters could now shift to constructively participating in the democratic process.

The next local elections allowed Māori and all people to stand on an even playing field.

Democracy Northland chair John Bain said KDC’s decision as a positive move for democracy.

Kaipara Councillor Mark Vincent voted against the removal of Maori wards. Photo / Michael Craig

KDC must now do a representation review that would normally take five months in a much shorter timeframe.

Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward Cr Pera Paniora said after the meeting that the council decision was undemocratic because the community had not had a chance to have its say.

Paniora, a lawyer, said the decision was hypocrisy.

Polls had been held up as an essential part of the Kaipara community having its say on Māori wards.

But today’s decision to remove the ward had been made without public consultation.

New Government legislation allows councils to get rid of their Māori wards before the next local election or keep them and hold a binding poll.

Paniora tried to get today’s council meeting to pause its decision around the ward’s and talk to Māori first, but failed.

Kaipara Councillor Pera Paniora speaks with Police. Photo / Michael Craig

The ward will stay until the next local election.

Paniora said she would continue to represent her ward as part of the wider Kaipara rohe as KDC’s Māori ward councillor until then.

The three-year council term that began in October 2022 was not finished until October 2025.

Paniora was today ambivalent about whether she would stand at the next local elections.

She said it was all very well for those against the Māori ward to say she could stand for election in a general ward at that time.

Being a Māori ward councillor gave her the mandate to speak for Māori.

She would not have that same mandate as a general ward councillor.

Paniora said her message to other Māori ward councillors around New Zealand after today’s KDC decision and the legislation change that enabled it was to be strong.

Kaipara Councillor Pera Paniora addressing those gathered outside the Kaipara District Council's meeting on Māori wards. Photo / Michael Craig

“Kia kaha,” Paniora said.

Earlier, protesters disrupted the meeting. .

A protester stepped through the council meeting room doors, opened by Māori ward councillor Pera Paniora, and her haka drowned out the meeting as Democracy Northland’s Frank Newman was speaking.

Jepson adjourned the meeting, just half an hour after it began.

A Kaipara District Council meeting was disrupted by protesters this morning. Photo / Michael Craig

Police removed the protester performing a haka from the doorway.

Blinds covering the meeting venue’s windows and glass doors, raised by Paniora, were then pulled down again.

The meeting resumed at 10.05am, with protesters singing outside.

Jepson later warned Paniora that if she continued to operate in a disorderly way she would be removed.

The meeting was again abandoned just after 11am as Jepson started speaking to his motion to can the Māori ward.

Paniora again opened the meeting venue doors, as Jepson started speaking against race-based wards.

Paniora went outside the meeting venue to tautoko (support) protesters.

Jepson sat alone at the top of the table with council chief executive Jason Marris as councillors left the room briefly.

A policeman moved among the public inside the building and officers were also outside on the balcony.

The disruption subsided, the doors closed, and the meeting reconvened.

Jepson said Kaipara’s Māori ward brought division.

Cr Mike Howard said voting on the ward was the hardest decision he faced in 21 months in local government to date.

Paniora continued to put points of order, as Howard became the first speaker to be allowed to talk for longer than the allocated five minutes.

Te Runanga o Ngāti Whātua this morning filed judicial review proceedings against the council’s potential canning of the ward.

Te Runanga o Ngāti Whātua trustee Deb Nathan said court proceedings had been filed because there had not been adequate time allowed for consultation with mana whenua over the council getting rid of its Māori ward.

Should the council remove its Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward, she said, the proceedings lodged would become a High Court injunction to block the council action.

More than 200 protesters were outside the council’s Mangawhai extraordinary meeting as it got under way.

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