Voters pick last local representatives for South Taranaki but no boost for Māori voice

Voters have picked Racquel Cleaver-Pittams for the Te Hāwera general ward and Bronwyn Wattrus for the Pātea Community Board. Photo / File

Voters have picked Racquel Cleaver-Pittams and Bronwyn Wattrus to fill the final two elected seats in South Taranaki.

The results again highlighted the difficulty for Māori candidates to win representation in Taranaki local government.

Cleaver-Pittams became the fifth Te Hāwera ward councillor after only four candidates stood last year.

Her 1138 votes easily topped Cheval Graham’s 678 and 179 for Tim Dickson.

Cleaver-Pittams campaigned on looking after public assets, from town centres to sports facilities, to keep the district attractive and alive.

“I think we’ve got amazing stuff here in South Taranaki, amazing community, and a heck of a lot of opportunity.”

With 470 votes, Wattrus more than doubled Ngāpari Nui’s tally of 215 in the byelection to replace Joanne Peacock who resigned from the Pātea Community Board.

Wattrus wanted more innovation to broaden engagement with the board.

“I’m quite big on the social media and the technology: just maybe getting what the community board is doing a little bit more out there — which would hopefully appeal to a younger age group as well.”

The latest results haven’t moved the needle for Māori representation on Taranaki councils, despite Māori being more than 20 per cent of the region’s population.

In South Taranaki just two of the 16 community board members are Māori, or 13 per cent, both elected to the Taranaki Coastal board.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui endorsed Nui for the byelection, and also backed him and two other candidates for community boards in last year’s poll — voters rejected all three.

Nui, who is deputy chairmann of the rūnanga, knew he faced an uphill battle, despite also sitting on the Taranaki Māori Trust Board, and the boards of Wai-o-Turi Pā and Te Korimako o Taranaki.

While Pātea township is roughly half Māori, surrounding farmland from Manutahi to Waitōtara is predominantly Pākehā.

“It’s not just about our own people voting for me, it’s also whether our Tiriti partners are happy to support somebody Māori.”

Nui said it was frustrating that kaupapa like co-governance had incited such opposition.

“Some are saying their rights are being taken away, but y’know we’ve had our rights taken away for over 150 years.”

Apart from the two new Māori wards, only one Māori sits on South Taranaki District Council: Te Aroha Hohaia was elected unopposed last year due to Te Hāwera ward’s candidate shortfall.

Across Taranaki, general ward voters selected just one Māori councillor — Dinnie Moeahu for New Plymouth’s district-wide ward.

For the first time, the five new Māori ward councillors guarantee some representation of Māori views and interests among the 45 councillors throughout Taranaki.

The five wards take Māori representation to 14 per cent of seats: without them there would be only two Māori at the top tables — a meagre 4 per cent.

There was one byelection candidate with Māori whakapapa standing in Te Hāwera, but Cheval Graham said he didn’t want race or heritage to swing voters.

New councillor Racquel Cleaver-Pittams supported working together with local iwi and hapū.

“I think that’s pretty critical to our community, and if we can get that right that’s the foundation for everything moving forward.”

– Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air