Maori Ward by 2025 elections in South?

“The times have changed,” is the only pointer South Wairarapa councillor Pip Maynard could give over the prospects of a brand new Maori Ward being included in the election process for SWDC in 2025.

Maynard is helping work through the process as liaison between council and the Maori Standing Committee, which has been consulting local Maori Iwi and hapu in recent months. 

An earlier move to establish Maori Wards for the 2022 election failed, a decision Wairarapa Iwi noted as “disappointing.” 

“The Maori Standing Committee is engaging to see what the appetite is for establishing a ward” among mana whenua, she told The Star.

“A lot of work has been done to ensure the voice of the Maori population of South Wairarapa has been heard,” she added, but said she was “not going to go there” when pressed on what the responses were across the rohe. 

Maynard said “it’s a work in progress” and the project is “about representation, not just a Maori Ward. It is a very important issue.”

While the issue had been “consulted in the past, there was not the appetite” for the idea. “The times have changed,” she added.

Two previous reviews (2012, 2018) have declined to introduce Maori Wards to SWDC, despite legal requirements to ensure “fair and effective representation for individuals and communities in local government.”

Earlier this year an independent panel confirmed “a radical overhaul” and stronger relations with Maori were needed.

A recent Martinborough Community Board meeting was told one Maori Ward would be warranted on the basis of the 2022 census data.

In 2021 an Iwi protest at the council offices included a statement that Iwi were “extremely disappointed” at SWDC’s “continued misinformation, delay tactics and inability to engage with tangata whenua” over setting up a Maori Ward.

The most recent council update noted: “whether or not to establish a Māori Ward for South Wairarapa in the 2025 local elections” would mean considering an “optional resolution (on) 23 November 2023.”

Carterton District Council voted October 25 against establishing a Maori ward. A first vote tied 4 – 4; the second lost 5 – 4.  Mayor Ron Mark abstained in both.  Opponents said a Maori Ward would be divisive in the town. 

Carterton has two non-voting Maori at the council table. One, former Maori Party MP Marama Fox, said local Maori “feel disengaged” from council. “We have been trying to get a voice for our people…. If you vote this down, what a waste of time.” 

Another central North Island district – Waitomo Council – also rejected a call for Maori Ward representation in the past month.

In August, Western Bay of Plenty District Council voted 9 – 3 to establish a Maori Ward or Wards for the 2025 and 2028 election – a move described by councillors as “momentous,” “a long time coming” and “totally wrong.” 

The repeal of Māori wards is likely under a National-led government.  ACT has pledged to repeal the wards first put in place in 2001. When asked about ACT’s policy, National leader Christopher Luxon said his party’s position was that New Zealand was “one country” and a democracy with one person, one vote. Asked if that meant Māori Wards would be repealed under a National government, he said: “That’s been our view and our position. ” 

At the 2022 local government elections, 29 local councils and six regional councils had Māori Wards.