Bay of Plenty council gets extra Maori seat

By BERNARD ORSMAN and ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

Direct Maori representation on Environment Bay of Plenty, starting at the October local body elections, has received a boost with a decision to increase the number of Maori seats from two to three.

The Local Government Commission has increased the number of seats from 12 to 14, including an extra Maori seat.

Meanwhile, it has axed seats on other councils as part of a membership review of 28 local authorities for the 2004 local body elections.

The Christchurch City Council has been halved from 24 to 12 councillors, Wellington City Council cut from 19 to 14 councillors and Manukau City Council cut from 20 to 17. A further 56 councils will be reviewed at the 2007 local body elections.

Maori interests, and the Rotorua and Whakatane District Councils, made submissions to the commission seeking to increase Maori seats to three.

Environment Bay of Plenty wanted to stick with 12 seats, including two Maori seats. Whakatane Mayor Colin Hammond said neither he nor his council supported separate Maori seats but if there was to be Maori representation it was fairer to have a seat for each of the three iwi in the area.

In a written determination, the three-member commission, chaired by Auckland consultant Grant Kirby, said three seats would reasonably reflect Maori communities of interest and tribal affiliations.

The commission came up with three Maori seats under a formula in the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (Maori Constituency Empowering) Act using the ratio of the Maori electoral population to the total electoral population of the region.

Under the formula, the council was entitled to three Maori seats on a 14-member council. If the council had stayed at 12 members, it would have been entitled to two Maori seats.

Other changes have received a mixed response.

Tauranga Mayor Jan Beange said cutting the number of councillors from 13 to 10 was soundly based and would produce a higher level of competency and more manageable membership at the council table.

The Whakatane District Council got its wish to cut three of its 13 members and Far North District Council Mayor Yvonne Sharp said cutting the number of councillors from 10 to nine gave the district a way forward instead of looking back to the past.

Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis said a council like Manukau, with 165 cultural groups, extremes between rich and poor and a large rural area, should have more democracy, not less.