Northland Regional Council deputy chair Jack Craw, left, with new chair Pita Tipene. Photo / Susan Botting
Prominent Māori leader Pita Tipene has been selected by fellow councillors as Northland Regional Council’s chair.
Kawakawa’s Tipene (Ngāti Hine) was chosen in a 5-3 vote to helm the council at its inauguration ceremony in Whangārei today.
Tipene, 64, retired in June from seven years at the helm of the Waitangi National Trust. He has held numerous regional and national leadership roles, including on the council’s Māori committee Te Ruarangi.
He was chosen as council chair after being elected on to NRC’s Te Raki Māori Constituency last month.
Tipene edged out former chair Hikurangi’s Geoff Crawford who lost his bid for a second stint as chair.
Tipene is one of two chairmen among New Zealand’s 11 regional councils from a Māori constituency.
Tipene said he represented his Māori constituency which brought a particular world view, but would be working on behalf of all Northlanders.
Tipene’s selection makes the NRC the first regional council in New Zealand to have had two chairs from a Māori electoral area. Its first was former chairwoman Tui Shortland.
He said he was disappointed NRC electors voted to get rid of NRC’s Māori constituency.
Just 661 votes separated electors’ 50.5% majority vote to get rid of the constituency – with 31,539 people wanting and 30,878 wanting to keep it in what was Northland’s smallest majority vote to get rid of the ward.
Tipene said he was humbled to be elected chairman.
He said the nine politicians around the NRC top table were individuals but they moved collectively, working on behalf of all Northlanders.
His first aim was to build cohesion and unity of purpose in the governance team and focus on supporting Northland.
Crawford, who was re-elected as a councillor unopposed, said he looked forward to working with Tipene and fellow councillors in the new term.
“I might not be the captain now, but I’m still on the team and my job is to work as hard as I can for the betterment of Northland,” Crawford said.
Tipene and others acknowledged Crawford’s contribution as chair.
These included going straight to the top to meet the Prime Minister and Government Ministers for Northlanders’ betterment, his efforts in bringing a large chunk of Northport shareholding ownership into Northlanders’ hands and for his leading role in getting $6.2 million Government funding to fight the invasive marine pest caulerpa exotic seaweed.
Crs Jack Craw, Toss Kitchen, Amy Macdonald, Arama Morunga and Tipene himself voted for his chairmanship.
Crawford’s votes came from himself and councillors John Blackwell and John Hunt.
Councillor Joe Carr abstained.
Meanwhile, councillors elected Whangārei’s Craw as deputy-chair, from a three-person choice of himself, Carr and Crawford.
This is Craw’s second stint in the role in his third term.
Craw said his main role was to support the chair. He would be focusing on building harmony between councillors.
The new 2025 NRC council sees a mix of old and new among the nine-member top table sworn in at NRC’s Whangārei council chambers today – Tipene, Craw and Blackwell, Carr, Crawford, Hunt, Kitchen, Morunga and Tipene.
Macdonald attended the meeting remotely from Wellington law firm Simpson Grierson, where she was sworn into office by Kaipara Moana Remediation chief executive Justine Daw, who was delegated to the role of officially witnessing Macdonald’s swearing in.
Today’s council meeting saw the return of Kitchen - a long-time local government politician, Northland Civil Defence chair, Fire and Emergency New Zealand Kaitāia chief and community leader.
Kitchen, who now lives between Tokerau Beach and Te Ngaere Bay, was a Far North District councillor for 12 years before being elected to the NRC in 2019 and standing down at the 2022 elections.
He had sought re-election to help bring harmony back to the council top table.
He said the last council term had seen a very divided governance team which had created stress for councillors and staff.
Meanwhile, Morunga (Te Hikutu hapū, Ngāpuhi/Ngati Hine) - a first-time Māori constituency councillor - said being in the council chamber for the swearing-in ceremony felt like having his family around him.
His wife Bronwyn and children Kanoa (then 7) and Waiaaio (then 6) feature in the mural on the council chamber’s east wall in a giant photographic mural in AH Reed bush in 2019, when Morunga worked at NRC as its cultural adviser.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.