Mr Rimene, a self-described man of "the old school", said he was aware of the controversy over the move to appoint the two iwi representatives, with full voting rights, to the policy and finance and the audit and risk committees.
The motion to do so was carried by seven votes to two, with councillors Gary Caffell and Brent Goodwin opposed.
Mr Rimene said he had been told "before and after" he was elected to council that he could have taken his place as an appointee "by right" under the Treaty of Waitangi.
"I said, 'Look here, I don't agree with that. No.' When we got Annabel on, I said let's go for the vote," he said.
"I come from a generation where I knew a lot of Pakeha people and we got along very well. We never had this sort of trouble in my day, and the Pakeha people we worked with were good friends and good people.
"But today that has changed and going on council by right is up to them. I'm from the old school, let's put it that way, and a lot of our people are very clued-up these days.
"This is a challenge that can be taken up, it's a challenge where you say, 'I'm as good as you'. There are a lot of educated, high-achieving young people who are good enough to face that challenge today.
"I was brought up amongst our old people and they taught that if you're good enough, go for it," Mr Rimene said.
"I enjoyed being on council. It felt really good because I didn't go on there by right. I walked through the same door as every other councillor, and I was proud to do it.
"We drank together and ate out of the same fish and chip packet, and we didn't look at the fingers and whether they were brown or white," he said.
