As the Waitangi Tribunal holds an urgent inquiry over Māori wards, 1News looks at what the Government has planned for representation on local councils.
The local elections may still be nearly 18 months away, but the make-up of our councils at those elections is already under close examination.
At the centre of that scrutiny is the role of Māori wards.
Before Labour swept to victory in the general election of 2020, the number of Māori wards on local councils could be counted on one hand.
By the time the 2022 local elections rolled around, there were 35 Māori wards in place around New Zealand. More councils have since chosen to put Māori wards in place for the 2025 local elections.
But that number could be about to tumble as the National-led Government prepares to roll back the changes Labour made around Māori wards.
What is the current situation with Māori wards?
It’s not mandatory to have Māori wards, but councils can establish them under the Local Electoral Act 2001.
Māori wards sit alongside general wards in a city or district.
Before 2021, there used to be more hoops to jump through before a Māori ward could be established. Decisions to create Māori wards were able to be overturned by a local referendum, triggered by a petition that needed signatures from just 5% of local voters.
There had been 24 attempts to establish Māori wards on councils between 2002 and 2021 and only two councils managed to do so.
The previous Labour government said the local referendums were “an almost insurmountable barrier to improving Māori representation in local government”.
So, it scrapped those binding referendums, giving councils the option to create Māori wards that couldn’t then be overturned by a local vote.
What does the National-led Govt want to do?
Those binding referendums on Māori wards are set for a comeback, with the coalition government revealing last month it would repeal the changes Labour made in 2021.
That decision was not met with much surprise, given all three coalition partners said they planned to do so during election campaigning.
NZ First’s election manifesto promised to repeal the Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act. The party had also previously launched a petition to repeal the legislation, which received 844 signatures against its goal of 10,000.
Christopher Luxon said last year that National was opposed to Labour’s law change around Māori wards.
“New Zealand is one country and a democracy with one person, one vote,” he said at the time.
ACT also promised to repeal “undemocratic” Māori wards.
“ACT will restore one person, one vote to local government by scrapping race-based representation altogether,” said party leader David Seymour last year.
Despite what those comments from Luxon and Seymour might suggest, the establishment of Māori wards does not give anyone extra votes.
People enrolled on the Māori electoral roll vote for one or more councillors in Māori wards. People on the general roll, meanwhile, elect one or more councillors in general wards. Everyone votes for the mayor and other roles like community board members.
The people who do currently get extra votes at local elections are those who own properties in regions where they don’t live. For example, a person who lives in Auckland and owns a house in Queenstown can vote in both the Auckland and Queenstown local elections. A member’s bill to abolish that “ratepayer roll” rule was defeated in a vote at its first reading earlier this year.
Where to now for Māori wards?
The Government plans to introduce a bill restoring the ability to petition for binding referendums on Māori wards, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown.
“The Coalition Government will reverse the previous government’s divisive changes that denied local communities the ability to determine whether to establish Māori wards. Local community members deserve to have a say in their governance arrangements,” he said.
Any Māori wards that were established after Labour’s law change will be subject to a mandatory referendum during the 2025 local elections.
If that referendum rejects Māori wards, those seats will disappear at the elections held in 2028.
However, the Government also plans to give councils the option of simply disestablishing any of the recently formed Māori wards before the 2025 elections.
Opposition parties have been very critical of the move since it was announced last month.
Labour called it a “kick in the guts” for Māori, while Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said it was a “continued attack on Māori representation and rights to decision making in our local councils”.
Waititi added that having 5% of people making a determination for the other 95% was “like Te Pāti Māori making all the decisions for the nation in the current Parliament”.
Local Government New Zealand said the upcoming repeal was “a complete overreach by the Government on local decision making”.
An urgent inquiry
The move to roll back changes around Māori wards is also now subject to an urgent inquiry by the Waitangi Tribunal.
The application for urgency on the Māori ward changes was filed by Te Raukura O’Connell Rapira and Anne Waapu, and has been supported by several Māori councillors, iwi, hapū and kaupapa Māori organisations.
“It’s clear that the coalition government feels threatened by our nation’s move towards becoming a more Tiriti-honouring, justice-centred, participatory and inclusive society,” O’Connell Rapira said.
“By taking our claim to the Waitangi Tribunal, we’re exercising one of the few legal avenues available to us as Māori to hold our Treaty partners to account for their bad behaviour and broken promises.”
The Tribunal will need to release its report into the matter before May 20, which is when the Government is set to introduce the bill.