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Opinion: Welcome to the Kaipara district, 2024, where Māori make up more than 25% of the population.
It’s where the local council this week voted 3-6 (with one abstention) to ditch its one guaranteed council seat set aside for Māori voters to elect the best Māori candidate to represent them.
By doing so, the Kaipara District Council (KDC) became the first to “disestablish” its Māori ward under newly passed government legislation.
Kaipara mayor Craig Jepson wasted no time in organising the vote to get rid of Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward; it was held at a short-notice extraordinary meeting. It’s not surprising, I suppose, given that in 2022 that same council removed karakia from the start of its meetings.
The heavily robed Jepson’s concluding statement before the vote was: “We need to maintain our wonderful democracy and not slide down the path to an ethnostate.”
(An ethnostate is a sovereign state where citizenship is restricted to members of a particular racial or ethnic group. That strikes me as ironic.)
He went on to say the vote was about “not bowing down before intimidation” by those who support the slippery slope. He argued Māori wards rely on a false narrative.
“That narrative preaches that Māori have no voice, are unfairly disadvantaged, are oppressed, suffer the continual effects of colonisation, systemic racism and victimhood.”
He said the narrative was false and most “Kiwis”, regardless of culture, including Māori, saw this as a false narrative, which is why few people vote in the Māori ward. Jepson said he believed the Māori in his district didn’t see themselves as oppressed and knew the narrative was false.
He said Māori knew that if they took responsibility for themselves, they would succeed – if they sent their kids to school, took free dental care and doctors’ appointments, and enjoyed the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
Where is this place? It sounds great, but it is, of course, overly simplistic and heavily patronising (and, I suspect, hypocritical as well).
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the National Party agreed to The Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill in its coalition agreement with Act and NZ First. It means those councils that set up Māori wards without a referendum now have to go to the expense of holding a binding poll alongside the 2025 local body elections.
While I hate using the word “racism” or accusing people of being racist, I actually can’t think of a more appropriate word right now. If there wasn’t anti-Māori sentiment around the council table, why the rush to hold the vote?
This vote was only possible because Luxon and his merry henchmen, David Seymour and Winston Peters, hatched the plan during confidential – or should that be secretive – coalition talks. How Luxon sees this as advancing a modern New Zealand is anyone’s guess.
I predict trouble on the horizon and believe Luxon’s decisions will be responsible for it.
It invites a “race war” and creates nothing more than fresh division. I’ve heard the talkback – because I took the calls, and I know many people remain angry about so-called race-based seats – but if you think separate seats are themselves racist and controversial as a concept, Parliament has had them since 1867 and, despite the odd bit of noise, these seats are largely accepted as the best way Māori can guarantee representation in Parliament.
In Kaipara, local Māori representatives were barely given the chance to speak at the meeting. That speaks volumes about representation and systemic disadvantage and takes us back decades to an era where only white men ruled and only the dominant white locals had a seat at the table.
Grassroots democracy in the Kaipara might have just taken one almighty step backwards, but the region might become something of an outlier.
Masterton District Council voted to keep its Māori ward, with mayor Gary Caffell saying it’s now vital and he’s learnt so much by having a Māori voice at the decision-making table. Rangitīkei mayor Andy Watson has expressed similar views, saying holding referendums will create division and is a cost ratepayers don’t need.
Of course, no one is stopping Māori, the minority in many places but the first people to set foot on this land, from standing for the local council against all comers. May the best and most popular man or woman get voted on to the local council. But it’s a system where the odds are stacked against them.
It also makes me wonder about specific “rural wards”, which guarantee the interests of farmers are represented. Why has no one questioned them? Why have they never been up for discussion?
Anyway, just a thought.
