No guarantee of Maori seats

Whatever has been said thus far in the course of the Far North District Council's proposal for the establishment of a unitary authority, there is no guarantee that any future council, of whatever form, will include Maori seats.

The proposal, now before the Local Government Commission, has always included the promise that three seats would be reserved for Maori.

Local government expert Jane Simmonds told a Northland Regional Council-convened public meeting in Kaikohe on Tuesday night that there were two options for providing for "effective" Maori representation, one of which required the support of all electors, the other needing special legislation.

The Local Electoral Act provided an optional process for establishing Maori wards, but that did not constitute a guarantee. The establishment of wards would need majority approval from all electors via a poll.

If successful, the number of Maori seats would be determined by the proportion of electors registered on the Maori electoral roll.

Ms Simmonds said the FNDC's application to form a unitary authority included provision for dedicated Maori representation from each of three wards, but the LGC was unable to provide for Maori wards and constituencies unless they were already provided for in the district or region concerned.

Maori wards could be guaranteed by special legislation, which the current government had rejected in the course of establishing the Auckland Council. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council had separate Maori wards under its own empowering legislation, however.

Only voters on the Maori roll would be able to vote for a Maori councillor; they would not be able to vote for a general councillor instead of or as well as a Maori member.

Maori could be appointed to council advisory groups or committees (as in Auckland), but not to the council itself. All councillors, whatever structure was used, had to be elected.

The optionsMeanwhile Tuesday night's meeting, called by the NRC as part of the consultative process it has committed to prior to lodging an alternative proposal to the LGC, heard there were six options for local government structure in Northland. They were:

The status quo (one regional council and three district councils).

One regional council and two district councils (formed via an amalgamation of the existing three).

One regional and one district council.

Three unitary authorities, one each for the Far North, Whangarei and Kaipara.

Two unitary authorities.

One single unitary authority for the entire region.

Ms Simmonds said all six options had pros and cons, and that there was no right or wrong way to reform local government in Northland.

Northland regional councillor Joe Carr said the NRC had a preferred option, but would not be revealing what that was until the consultative process had been completed.

The deadline for lodging an alternative proposal to the FNDC's is April 15.