Porirua community members and local mana whenua have held their first citizens’ assembly to brainstorm how they can prepare for climate change and repair damage in their local environment.
A group of locals
Climate change: Porirua locals & Ngāti Toa hold first citizens’ assembly to plan for future
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Ngāti Toa leader Helmut Modlik was attracted to the idea of a citizens’ assembly because he felt it offered a better alternative to local and central democracy. He described a citizens’ assembly as “explicitly deliberative” versus the adversarial nature of governments.
“The assembly was an outstanding success that energised our community and caught their imagination. It has enabled us to believe we can take more control of our community than we had previously been thinking.”
From here, Ngāti Toa will present the recommendations to local community leaders and stakeholders and the Government, before planning how they can action the recommendations themselves.
“We need to own our own space in terms of our implementation because it isn’t about asking people to do stuff, this is about everyone having skin in the game in Porirua.”
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What is a citizens’ assembly?
A citizens’ assembly involves bringing together a group of people who are representative of their community to discuss certain issues of strong public interest. The group then produces recommendations.
Ngāti Toa and democracy group The People Speak dropped 12,000 invitations in letterboxes. Fifty people were randomly selected to participate alongside another group of 50 mana whenua.
Recommendations
Recommendations for rangatahi (young people) included:
- Establishing two seats for rangatahi on the Porirua City Council
- Support the “Make it 16” campaign to lower the voting age
- Establish a Youth Council for ages 12-24 under the Porirua City Council
Infrastructure:
- Expand access to renewable energy
- Improve storm water management
- More water tanks in homes
- More accessible recycling centres
- Improve “last mile” connectivity for public transport
- Provide financial incentives for homeowners converting to solar power
Te Taiao (natural world) recommendations included:
- Promote native afforestation – the process of establishing a forest in a new area – including incentivising private landowners
- Converting bare land for carbon credits
- Integrate traditional ecological knowledge and community-led restoration
People recommendations:
- Develop marae resilience support programmes for current and future marae
- Develop a focus group to work on climate change initiatives for local councils
Approach and implementation recommendations:
- Complete economic analysis of climate change adaptation across Porirua
- Establish Te Tiriti model of governance
- Greater transparency in the motivations of those running for council
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.