Wellington City Councillor files notice of motion to establish Māori ward
Tuesday, 2 February 2021
A day after sweeping changes were made to a 'racist' law on Māori wards, a councillor has called for a Māori ward to be established in Wellington.
On Tuesday, Wellington City councillor Jill Day (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) filed a notice of motion to establish a Māori ward in addition to having representatives from iwi Te Āti Awa Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa Rangatira appointed to all of the council’s committees and subcommittees.
This comes after Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced changes to the law relating to Māori wards. Similar to Māori parliamentary seats, Māori wards establish areas where those on the Māori electoral roll vote for representatives who sit alongside general wards.
Day, who holds the Māori partnerships portfolio, said council had already agreed that mana whenua would join at committee meetings and work was progressing to ensure it happened. “This will continue alongside the establishment of a Māori ward in Wellington,' Day said.
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Day along with Mayor Andy Foster and Councillors Fleur Fitzsimons, Jenny Condie, Teri O’Neill, Iona Pannett, Tamatha Paul, Rebecca Matthews and Laurie Foon signed the notice of motion on Tuesday.
The notice of motion has been given to the Wellington City Council’s chief executive Barbara McKerrow.
“I’m thrilled that the Mayor and majority of City Councillors support the establishment of a Māori ward for the next Council elections,' Day said.
“Wellingtonians have been very supportive of honouring Te Tiriti and a Māori ward is another step in addressing the wrongs of the past and making good decisions for Wellington’s future.”
Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons, who seconded the notice of motion, said “a Māori ward will help the council make better decisions about the long-term future of Wellington”.
“Jill Day was the first Māori woman elected to the Wellington City Council in 2016, the establishment of a Māori ward will mean more Maori voices are guaranteed at the council table.”
In October 2020, a notice of motion focused on mana whenua representation was filed.
The notice of motion called for council officers to report back to councillors about the legal and logistical steps for mana whenua representation. It will mean a representative from each of Wellington’s two iwi – Te Āti Awa Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa Rangatira – is appointed to all the council’s committees and subcommittees by July next year.
They will be paid and have voting rights, but will not have voting rights at meetings of the full council, which can overturn decisions made by council committees.
The notice of motion was signed by Day and fellow councillors Jenny Condie, Fleur Fitzsimons, Laurie Foon, Sarah Free, Rebecca Matthews, Teri O’Neill, Iona Pannett and Tamatha Paul.
Councillor Tamatha Paul (Ngāti Awa and Waikato Tainui) said she thought it was good to have as much Māori representation as possible.
“Historically, we know local government has not been the best at upholding obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi,' Paul said.
However, Māori living in Wellington needed to be respectful of mana whenua when it came to Māori wards and representation in Wellington, she said.
Māori not from Te Āti Awa Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa Rangatira were “guests, and [local iwi] need to take the lead”, she said.
“We have to always be cognisant of the importance and supremacy of mana whenua.”
Meanwhile, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council will also be discussing the recent changes to the Māori wards law.
This would be on the agenda at the next regional council meeting at the end of this month, and councillors will be determining what sort of process to run ahead of the 21 May 2021 deadline.
The regional council had already decided to hold a poll alongside the 2022 election.
‘FUNDAMENTALLY UNFAIR TO MĀORI’
The law reforms would run over the next three years, starting with changes to uphold council decisions for the next election.
A second stage would set in place a permanent process for councils to follow when considering creating new wards.
The changes would encourage other councils to look at adopting the wards – pushing back the deadline for a decision to May 21 this year.
Since the current law started in 2001, only two of the 24 councils that tried to create Māori wards were successful.
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta said on Monday that increasing Māori representation was “essential to ensuring equity in representation and to provide a Māori voice in local decision-making”.
“Like in Parliamentary elections, specific Māori seats can assist with this,” Mahuta said. The changes would bring the process for Māori wards in line with general wards.
Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said she was stoked the Government was getting rid of “a racist provision in our electoral laws”.
“This announcement is long overdue – successive governments have failed to act and have enabled this racist law that oppresses us as tangata whenua and our right to have say in decisions that affect us.”