Te Moananui o Kaipara Maori ward councillor Pera Paniora addresses protestors outside a Kaipara Council meeting where it voted to remove the ward in 2024 - the first council to do so under rules that led to this month's referendum. Photo / Michael Craig
Te Moananui o Kaipara Maori ward councillor Pera Paniora addresses protestors outside a Kaipara Council meeting where it voted to remove the ward in 2024 - the first council to do so under rules that led to this month's referendum. Photo / Michael Craig
Fourty two councils have held referendums on Māori wards - and 17 areas have voted to keep them, while 25 have voted to remove.
The 42 councils that held the referendums had previously establishedthe Māori wards without a vote.
Councils won the right to establish Māori wards in 2001, but they were also required to hold a binding referendum if 5% of local citizens signed a petition requesting one.
The Labour Government abolished the provision for binding referendums in 2021. In 2023, the National-led coalition brought the referendums back. The law now requires a binding referendum before any Māori ward can be introduced. And it’s retrospective: all councils that have created such wards since 2020, or have resolved to do so, were required to hold a referendum during this month’s council election or remove them.
“The argument is that Māori wards will be the demise of democracy. To remove Māori wards is an assault on Te Tiriti, the only reason a democracy inclusive of Pākehā could ever exist,” she wrote in the Herald.
“Disestablishing Māori wards further undermines councils’ autonomy in their rohe. This rings true for the Far North district of Te Tai Tokerau. This rohe alone covers over 6000 square kilometres, a whenua where Māori make up nearly 50% of the population,” she said.
