'New era' for North councils

FIRST TIMER: Willow-Jean Prime, at 30 the Far North's youngest councillor, with Whangarei Mayor Sheryl Mai at yesterday's swearing-in.

Far North Mayor John Carter has pledged a new era of co-operation between Northland's four councils.

The promise came during the swearing-in yesterday of the district's new mayor, councillors and community board members in the Kaikohe Memorial Hall and was underscored by the presence of Whangarei Mayor Sheryl Mai and her chief executive Mark Simpson. Ms Mai was officially sworn in a day earlier.

Iwi also used the ceremony to urge the new council to work more closely with Maori, who make up close to 45 per cent of the Far North population.

Mr Carter told more than 200 people at the official welcome that all councillors and community board members had pledged to work together, and with council, for the good of the district.

He had also met Ms Mai, new Northland Regional Council chairman Bill Shepherd and Kaipara commissioner John Robertson. All four leaders were due to be photographed together at Waitangi yesterday as a symbol of their commitment to working together, he said.

Mr Carter vowed that iwi and the council would be "joined at the hip" under his mayoralty, and choked back a tear when he paid tribute to his wife, Leoni, for sticking by him when the campaign turned him into "a grumpy, tired old bugger".

His promises of a more harmonious Northland follow six years of sometimes fractious relations between the FNDCl and the Northland Regional Council in particular. He may, however, have to build relationships with Maori after his comments during the campaign that a proposal for dedicated Maori seats amounted to apartheid.

Hokianga kaumatua and academic Patu Hohepa said Ms Mai's presence was "the beginning of the reunification of the North"; while Kaikohe's Arthur Harawira said major Treaty settlements on the horizon also promised a new era for Northland. The council had inherited a lot of land taken from Maori so he urged the new councillors to continue the dialogue begun under previous mayor Wayne Brown.

First-time councillors sworn in yesterday were Dave Collard, Tania McInnes, Willow-Jean Prime and John Vujcich.

Ms McInnes, of Paihia, was appointed deputy mayor at the new council's first official meeting yesterday afternoon.

Dave Collard is a Kaitaia businessman while 30-year-old Ms Prime is the Far North's youngest councillor to date. Mr Vujcich, who lost part of his leg in a farm accident during the campaign, was the subject of some good-natured teasing from kaumatua who said he "didn't have to go that far to get onto council".

Following the official speeches, supported by waiata and haka from Northland College students and council staff, Mr Carter was presented with a carved bone pendant and symbolically ushered to the side of the hall reserved for the hau kainga (home people).