For Maori language week Dr James Graham, principal advisor relationships, responsiveness and heritage at Hastings District Council demonstrates how to correctly pronounce Hawke's Bay Maori place names. Video Warren Buckland.
More than 50% of submissions on the Napier City Council’s desire to introduce a Māori Ward at next year’s local elections are in favour.
Speaking from Wellington, where she’s been at the Local Government New Zealand conference, Mayor Kirsten Wise said there had been 2305 submissions in a fortnight of consultation, which closed Thursday, and about 60 per cent were in favour of retaining the decision council made in 2021.
Staff are now considering the validity (issues such as whether people double-submitted) of the outcome before the issue goes before the council on September 5.
Wise said the provisional outcome is a swing from the reverse position indicated in the first few days.
Wise believes “mana whenua” mobilised, realising how important it was, after the government’s passing of changes to legislation.
Changes included a need to review decisions already made and to stage referenda at the 2025 elections on whether councils should have Māori Wards at the next election three years later.
The Napier City Council - Mayor and 12 councillors - as elected in 2022 for the three-year-term ending late next year. A proposal has been made to have one less councillor, and include among the 11 a Maori Ward for the first time in the city. Photo / Supplied.
The council was mid-term on the required six-year path for representation reviews when it made the decision in 2021 to propose a Māori Ward from the 2025 election.
The council hadn’t foreseen such a position as it deliberated in 2021, she said, but the legislation came from the coalition Government formed after the 2023 parliamentary General Election.
She said the changes had been a “hot topic” at this week’s national conference, drawing together municipal leaders from throughout the country, and “all” were “frustrated” with being “forced” into the position of revisiting the choices already made.
The council will issue the details of the consultation in the agenda material for the September 5 meeting which will decide on the next steps.
The council’s preferred position in the current representation review is for an 11-member council - one less than now - from the next election, incorporating a Māori ward with two members and three general wards of three members each.
In an opinion piece published in Hawke’s Bay Today as consultation began, Wise spoke of the need for Māori representation in local Government, saying it had been proportionately low over the years, and the content of submissions was if anything at least as important as the numbers for and against.
“My view is is whatever is good for Māori is good for everyone,” she said in the piece.
Matt Mullany, who was at the forefront of urging the council to institute a Maori Ward during the debate four years ago said he was delighted with the support in the submissions.
Mullany has recently taken up an appointment as chief executive of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Napier constituent authority Te Taiwhenua o Te Whanganui a Orotū.
“It’s great to see majority support from our community on Māori wards ahead of council’s vote,” he said.
“Our message ahead of the vote to council is to please listen to those in the community who want to see Māori engaged in decision making. Those views align with the aspirations of our tipuna who invited European settlement in 1848.”
