‘Most will be disestablished’: Pera Paniora on Māori wards and brutal referendum truth

Thursday, 13 March 2025

Most Māori wards will go in October’s council elections, warns Kaipara’s Pera Paniora, whose own seat was scrapped last August. She speaks to Joel Maxwell in the first of a series which catches up with Māori ward councillors from the four corners of the motu, on their hopes, dreams and fears.

It was August 2024 when the protester burst through a door on the Kaipara council chambers and performed a haka over top of a public speaker.

Police took away the kaihaka, and the blinds that had been opened by Māori ward councillor Pera Paniora were lowered again, against the singing crowd outside.

The meeting resumed at 10.05am and the Kaipara District Council’s Māori ward was dumped, in a 6-3 vote, setting the clock ticking on Paniora’s time in the now-unwanted seat at the table.

Paniora spoke to Stuff about being on the only council in Aotearoa that voted to ditch its sitting Māori ward - and the future for the balance of Māori wards nationwide.

“2031 - that’s the earliest that we’ll ever see another Māori ward,” she said - the date when Kaipara could revisit the ward decision.

The rest of the country, from the Far North to the top of the South Island at least, will decide by referendum whether to keep Māori wards in 42 other councils this year.

There were real challenges to keeping those wards, Paniora said, among them a risk of fatigue kicking in for Māori who had faced ongoing government policy changes: “Our heads are spinning.”

Last year, a law change by the coalition Government forced most councils with Māori wards to either dump them, or put them to a public referendum alongside October 11 council elections.

Existing Māori wards would vanish for 2028 elections - if dumped by referendum.

Only Kaipara voted immediately to scrap its ward - with Upper Hutt City yanking its planned ward for 2025 elections.

‘You’re voting for New Zealand’

A vote for Māori “is a vote for New Zealand”, said Paniora.

“We don’t have any overseas interests or hidden agendas or motives.”

However, the future of Māori wards under referendums was not promising.

High Māori population areas, such as the Far North, could hold their wards, but besides that, “it’s a numbers game”, she said.

“We’re only 20% of the population, there’s no way we can ever win a referendum, ever, so most of the wards will get disestablished.”

Nevertheless, she still had advice for the people who would decide the future of wards.

For those who felt strongly that there shouldn’t be a separate Māori ward, then “by all means, vote to disestablish”.

But those who didn’t feel strongly either way could take a “neutral stance”, she said, and just tick the candidates they wanted for the next three years.

“There’s nothing that says you have to tick a yes or a no [on the referendum].”

Meanwhile, Pākehā who wanted to keep the wards should lend a hand to Māori councillors, “because they’re going to be feeling really personally targeted”, even if that wasn’t the intention of the changes, she said.

Those in Māori ward seats were the ones who felt the greatest responsibility to campaign to retain them, she said.

Paniora said she never planned to become a councillor, winning her Te Moananui o Kaipara ward in 2022, but people in the community had nudged her, and supported her, to stand.

She did not regret the decision, she said. Looking back, she was there for a reason, sharing her skills as a lawyer, as a community leader, “and personally, I’m very fiery and, when I believe in something, I will push for it”.

Her message to other Māori councillors around Aotearoa was simple.

“I say, kia kaha, and show your communities - particularly the non-Māori communities - why your voice is so critical.”

At the time she spoke to Stuff, she had not decided whether she would stand in a general ward.