Call to vote: Hopes for higher Māori turnout in Rotorua local body elections

Voting ballot boxes in New Zealand. Photo / File

"If you don't vote, you don't have much to complain about."

Those were Te Tatau o Te Arawa chairman Te Taru White's words of wisdom ahead of the upcoming local body elections.

Local Government New Zealand's 2016 post-election survey statistics show on average only 50 to 60 per cent of eligible Māori voted in the local body elections, less than the 65 to 70 per cent of New Zealand Europeans who did.

Te Taru White said registering to vote was the first step to getting more Māori voting.

"A lot don't," he said.

Te Taru White. Photo / File

"Even though we are in our own home, in this democratic process, we have a smaller voting population (than Pākehā)."

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has three Māori seats allocated, but this is not the case on the Rotorua Lakes Council.

White said this meant the Māori vote could be spread more thinly across a wider number of candidates for the Rotorua Lakes Council.

Rotorua community member and former Māori Party leader Te Ururoa Flavell said the Rotorua Lakes Council's Te Tatau o Te Arawa partnership model had shown "how Māoridom can guide a city in positive ways, as it should be".

Te Ururoa Flavell. Photo / File

"But Te Tatau o Te Arawa is just one part of ensuring and nailing down representation... Māori don't participate for all sorts of reasons. There is often a lack of understanding about how to vote and why.

"People don't realise how the results affect their own pocket at a local level, with rates, how we manage garbage, water, all those things. I don't think people always make that connection."

To receive voting papers in the mail, voters needed to be enrolled to the correct address last Friday, but residents can still contact their local body to arrange a special vote.

Key local body election dates. Image / File

Rotorua voters are eligible to elect Lakes District Health Board members, and Bay of Plenty Regional Council members as well as Rotorua Lakes Council's councillors and mayor.

Te Taru White stood unopposed for the Ōkurei Māori seat on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council for this term.

Local Government New Zealand's 2016 post election survey statistics

- Respondents who were most likely to vote were those who identified themselves as New Zealand Europeans, were older, were males, were living in "couple only" households, and had lived at the same address for 10 years or more.
- The three most common reasons given for not voting were "a lack of information about
candidates or policies", a "lack of interest", and being "too busy".
- Eighty-eight per cent of respondents made use of an official post box with 12 per cent making use of a temporary ballot box to submit their votes.