KEY POINTS:
Maori seats won't be adopted by Manukau City Council because to do so would destroy hard-won representation gains, the mayor said last night.
Councillors voted 11-5 in favour of doing nothing more about the issue after its Tiriti o Waitangi committee pushed for the council to adopt the representation model.
Under the plan two out of 17 places around the council table would have been designated Maori seats.
Controlling his first meeting since suffering a heart attack in May, Mayor Len Brown said the committee and Mana Whenua forum involving iwi hadn't been functioning long enough for the public to be comfortable.
"I'm wary and concerned that opening up the debate at this time could well lose us the gains that we've made tortuously and over a long time and against quite fierce opposition."
Mayor Brown was also concerned about making a decision that could be moot given that the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance had yet to make its final decisions.
Tiriti chairman Alf Filipaina said he was tired of waiting. "I personally do not want to wait another five, 10 years as we slowly go through a process as we slowly get people used to the fact of Maori wards." The city has 47,000 Maori in a population of 328,968.
