Tangata Whenua/ Tauranga City Council Committee chairman Huikakahu Kawe. Photo / FIle
Tangata Whenua/ Tauranga City Council Committee chairman Huikakahu Kawe. Photo / FIle
A joint committee between tangata whenua and the Tauranga City Council has recommended the council's commissioners ratify a decision to create a Māori ward.
The matter was up for discussion at a Tauranga City Council/Tangata Whenua Committee meeting today after the 2021 Local Electoral (Māori wards and Māori Constituencies) AmendmentAct came into force on March 1.
The amendment act established transitional measures that included extending the deadline until May 21 for councils to consider Māori wards for the 2022 election.
It revoked binding poll provisions in the Local Electoral Act that could overturn a council decision to establish Māori wards. Non-binding referenda can still be held.
The act enabled councils who had resolved to establish Māori wards to either let the resolution stand or revoke it by May 21.
The Tauranga City Council's elected members voted in August last year to establish a Māori ward in time for the next elections.
A public petition gained enough valid signatures to force a referendum on this decision, but the poll was cancelled when the amendment act came into force.
This year, the Government appointed a four-person commission to run the council in place of the elected members.
Tangata Whenua/ Tauranga City Council Committee member Irene Walker. Photo / File
In today's meeting, the council's democracy services manager, Coral Hair, and strategic Māori engagement manager Carlo Ellis presented a report on the ward.
Hair outlined the three options the committee members needed to choose from in terms of their recommendation to the council's commissioners.
The council had the option to retain the decision to establish a ward, revoke it or hold a non-binding referendum to help inform the commission's decision.
A referendum would cost $220,000 which has not been budgeted for, Hair said.
The committee members unanimously voted to recommend the commissioners retain the original decision.
The committee's recommendation has been referred to the next full council meeting on April 12 for a decision to be made by the commission, which is chaired by Anne Tolley.
Committee member Irene Walker said it was "exciting" to see this happening in 2021 after many years of striving to achieve this outcome.
"I think we have done well to get to this place. We have got to the gate and opened the gate. But now the real work commences to further engage with tangata whenua and mana whenua to get people to vote."
Walker said the decision was both a "wake-up call" and a call for action.
She said this was not just an important step in the electoral process to achieve better representation for Māori, but the whole community would benefit from a Māori ward.
Committee chairman Huikakahu Kawe agreed.
He said it would mean greater participation in the city's decision-making and bring people closer together, which was good for the whole city.
If the commission decided to follow the recommendation and retain the ward decision, the next step would be to begin a process to choose a name for the new ward.
