Thames-Coromandel votes in favour of Māori wards

Thames-Coromandel District Council. Photo supplied Thames-Coromandel District Council.

Thames-Coromandel District Council has adopted the establishment of a Māori ward for the 2025 local body elections.

About 100 people attended a council meeting at the Thames War Memorial Civic Centre on Tuesday, where district councillors voted seven to one in favour.

Councillor John Grant was opposed, while deputy mayor Terry Walker abstained from voting.

The council would now have a mayor elected at large, 10 councillors (nine general ward councillors and one Māori ward councillor), five wards (four general wards and one district-wide Māori ward), 20 community board members and five community boards for at least the 2025 elections.

Several people addressed the meeting, those in support and those opposed, with Mayor Len Salt asking everyone to respect all opinions.

Hauraki Mayor Toby Adams spoke to the meeting after his council unanimously voted to reaffirm its resolution to establish a Māori Ward for the 2025 local elections last week.

Adams said he was “blown away” by the number of people who had turned out for the meeting.

He said the council now had an opportunity to show “true” leadership and stand by their previous decision to establish a Maori ward.

The council made a unanimous decision to establish a Māori ward or wards for the 2025 and 2028 local elections in October 2023.

“I urge you to stick by your unanimous decision and stand by the Hauraki District Council.”

A couple of speakers called for the council to rescind the decision to establish a Māori ward.

One submitter said holding a referendum was “the right thing to do”.

“We are supposed to be inclusive, not divisive; we have not been inclusive.”

Another submitter, in support, asked that Māori be allowed to have a voice at the council table.

Councillor Deli Connell, in supporting the motion said having Māori representation, added a voice and knowledge.

In abstaining, Walker said he had been back to his constituency and questions had been asked about “democratic integrity”, with perceptions there had been “bypassing” of the process.

“We do not want to see our community polarised, I will abstain from voting and wait for a referendum.”

Grant, in voting against the motion, said “this cannot be an us and them, this must be an us”.

The 2023 decision to establish a Maori ward for the 2025 and 2028 local elections triggered a representation review that considered details such as how many wards were going to be established, their names and boundaries.

Māori wards are represented by councillors who sit alongside general ward councillors on council. Like their colleagues, they are elected representatives, but only voters enrolled on the Māori electoral roll can vote for them.

Parliament passed a bill in July changing the rules around how Māori wards are established following an impassioned and fiery debate in the House.

The coalition Government’s Māori wards bill reverted the law back to the old rules for establishing Māori wards, which required either a binding referendum on wards that were established since 2020 without a referendum or for the council to scrap the ward.

Under the new legislation, the council is required to hold a referendum as part of the local body elections next year.

Even if the referendum decided by a majority not to have a Māori ward in Thames-Coromandel, the council would still have a Māori ward in place for the 2025 to 2028 term, after which it would be disestablished, unless there was a change of Government and new legislation was introduced to retain the wards.