Call for 'silent majority' to step up in New Plymouth Māori ward debate

Monday, 20 July 2020

Former mayor Andrew Judd wants to see a more caring Māori ward debate this time around. (file photo)

The mayor who lost his position over a “horrendous” Māori ward debate is calling for those who stayed silent to step up this time around.

On Tuesday , New Plymouth District councillors will decide whether to put four options for Māori representation out for community consultation.

The district’s four community boards have all recommended this happen, but councillors have voiced fears the district will end up where it was six years ago.

Their 2014 decision to establish a Māori ward in New Plymouth was overturned the following year by a citizen-initiated binding poll that soundly rejected the proposal.

* Māori ward consultation recommended at committee meeting

* NPDC to consult community on Māori wards

The $71,400 poll, which divided the community, ultimately cost mayor Andrew Judd any chance of re-election, had he decided to even stand.

Judd said it was important to remember that fewer than half of registered voters took part in the 2015 poll, in which 83 per cent rejected the single Māori ward.

This time, he said, he wanted the “silent majority” to step up.

“Look how division creates anxiety and protesting and all the issues that we have,” he said.

“Does one seat solve that? Of course not, but it’s a beginning.'

Late last month, councillors and iwi leaders expressed frustration that until the law that allowed citizens to intimate binding referendums on the Māori ward issue was changed, any decision to establish one would be undone.

At the meeting Mayor Neil Holdom said he’d be happy to organise a bus to take concerned parties down to Wellington to lobby the government to change the law.

After voters rejected a single ward in the New Plymouth District in 2015, other councils also went through the same experience.

Kaumatua Grant Knuckey supported Māori wards last time around but wants a different approach now.

In 2017, Palmerston North City Council and the Kaikoura, Manawatū, Whakatane and Western Bay of Plenty district councils all voted to establish Māori wards.

The next year electors in those areas voted to reject the establishment of those wards. Average voter turnout in the five polls was approximately 40 per cent.

Judd said he hoped progress had been made since last time and no matter what the council decided, he wanted to see the community be more caring, inclusive and respectful this time around.

“Because last time was horrendous for us all,” he said.

“Are we an inclusive, caring community or not? And that’s the question we’ll find out.”

Puketapu kaumatua Grant Knuckey agreed consulting on Māori wards was a waste of time while the law allowed citizen-initiated referenda on the issue.

Knuckey said the ward idea needed to be thrown out completely, with the issue sent back to Māori registered on the electoral rolls to ask what it was they wanted to represent them in terms of local bodies.

“I’m about Māori democracy – that we have a say in our local affairs.”

The four options likely to go out for public consultation include are not establishing a Māori ward for the 2022 election, holding polls that would bind the community for at least two elections or simply establishing a Māori ward for the next two elections.

The council’s Te Huinga Taumatua Committee voted to remove the first option from the consultation, but that is likely to be added back in for fair consultation.

Council officers will also engage directly with iwi and hapū.

Should consultation go ahead, report on the findings must be ready for council by November 23.