Leader warns Government changes may kill Māori wards in Northland

A prominent Māori leader is warning new Government changes will mean the demise of Māori wards in Northland and across the country.

Ngāti Hine leader Pita Tipene from Northland has slammed the incoming coalition signalled Government’s changes wiping previous 2021 legislation vetoing communities’ ability to request a referendum or poll on their council’s introduction of a Māori ward.

"They’re a giant ngaru nui (tsunami) inundating the landscape and destroying everything in their path," Tipene said.

"We all know that communities that have a poll will turn down having a Māori ward," he said.

Tipene said Māori ward councillors would simply disappear from council tables in Northland and around New Zealand.

They would melt back into their communities, continuing to act as the leaders they were, but their voice would be lost from around the council table, Tipene said.

Northland was the first region in New Zealand to have all its councils with Māori wards.

The region has nine Māori ward councillors across four Māori wards, all introduced for the first time in 2022: Far North District Council (FNDC)’s Ngā Tai o Tokerau Māori Ward (Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, Babe Kapa, Penetaui Kleskovic and Tāmati Rākena); Kaipara District Council (KDC)'s Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori Ward (Pera Paniora), Whangārei District Council (WDC)'s Whangārei District Māori Ward (Deborah Harding and Phoenix Ruka) and Northland Regional Council (NRC)’s Te Raki Māori Constituency (Peter-Lucas Jones and Tui Shortland).

Tipene, who is also co-chairs NRC’s Te Taitokerau Māori and Council Working Party (TTMAC), said Māori wards were the culmination of years of mahi from the likes of former Far North Deputy Mayor and Government MP Dover Samuels who had built the foundations for today.

There had been huge strides made towards the inclusion of Māori in Northland’s local government in recent decades. Māori people who understood things with a Māori world view had become more involved in contributing to council regulations and decision making, Tipene said.

NRC had lead the way in the North for 15 years with memorandums of understanding with local hapū and the use of the more robust binding Mana Whakahone ā Rohe statutory arrangements for such links.

Tipene said the signalled Māori ward changes were part of an omnibus of Government changes that was overwhelming communities.

He said Māori people needed to double their efforts to make sure council Māori wards were kept or reintroduced into the future.

The newly announced Government changes rolled back rights enshrined in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, he said. The treaty was an honourable agreement that was now being dishonoured

Tipene said New Zealand had been on its way to becoming an inclusive society but that had now changed.

Meanwhile Samuels said he had been very much in favour of Māori wards.

But now, 18 months down the track from their introduction for most, in Northland and New Zealand, he was not convinced they had proven their worth.

"I would have thought that by this stage in the electoral cycle I would be saying ‘ Hallelujah, yes Māori wards were the right decision for Māori and for all the community’. But I can’t commit myself to that," Samuels said.

He would now not vote in favour of a Māori ward for his local Far North District Council (FNDC), if a community referendum was held.

Samuels said the main reason for this was that he would have expected FNDC’s Māori ward councillors to have a more active role in making sure the council’s 2024/2025 rates increase was not as high as the proposed 16.5 per cent rates increase.

His referendum vote would change in favour of the ward if the rates increased was reduced.

"Our Far North Māori ward representatives of all people should be aware of the affordability challenges for our people at this time, even to put food on the table.

"We need a rates increase of no more than five per cent."

Twenty-six percent of Northland’s overall population identifies as Māori, compared with 17.3 percent nationally.

At a district level, 51 per cent of Far North people identify as Māori, 30 per cent in Whangārei and 26 per cent in Kaipara.

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