Kawerau council reaffirms Māori wards

Kawerau residents will need to make sure they are enrolled to vote if they want to have a say on the binding poll at next year's election.

If Kawerau electors want to have Māori wards on their district council after 2028 they will need to vote for them.

Kawerau District Council voted on Wednesday to reaffirm their decision, made in November last year, to have Māori wards at next year’s local elections.

It is currently consulting on a representation proposal for next year’s election to have one Māori ward with three elected members, one general ward with three elected members and one at large ward with two elected members.

Kawerau Mayor Faylene Tunui and councillors have reaffirmed their committment to have one or more Māori wards at next year's election.

It is one of 13 councils throughout New Zealand that decided last year to have Māori wards from next year.

However, under new Government legislation, it is one of 45 councils required to either remove the Māori wards they planned to have or hold a binding poll during the elections on Māori wards.

Mayor Faylene Tunui said she could not think of any other piece of council work that required them to reaffirm with the community “not just once, not twice, but three times” that it had support.

“At the next election we will be asked once again, ‘are you sure, Kawerau?’”

If the outcome of the poll is not in favour of Māori wards, the council will not be able to consider them again until after the 2031 elections, even if petitioned by 5% of the electorate to do so.

This is required following the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act coming into effect at the end of July.

The councillors voted unanimously to stick with the commitment they had made to their community last year.

Councillor Sela Kingi urged anyone who wanted to have their say on whether to have Māori wards to ensure they were enrolled for the upcoming election.

Whakatāne District Council will have a similar decision to make on Thursday. It introduced three Māori ward seats at the last election and will vote tomorrow whether to disestablish these for the next election or hold a poll.

The council was unanimous when it voted to establish them in 2021.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Bay, Ōpōtiki District Council’s decision to introduce Māori wards next year is not affected by the amendment as it held a non-binding poll in 2022.

Māori ward seats on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council are also exempt as they were established before the Labour Government abolished the ability for a petition from 5% of a council’s electors to force a referendum on Māori wards in 2021.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.