Ruapehu council calls public meetings on future of Māori ward

Mayor Weston Kirton says the council will hold public meetings in Ohakune on August 14 and Taumarunui on September 4.

Ruapehu District Council is calling public meetings to canvas views on whether to keep or remove its three Māori ward seats before the 2025 local elections.

Mayor Weston Kirton said the council had reaffirmed its support for retaining its Māori wards but was required by new legislation this week to make a final formal decision.

“While we have been clear in our support for the Māori wards, council has not yet made a formal decision on their future. We have until Friday, September 6, to make this crucial decision.”

The coalition Government’s Māori wards bill passed its third and final reading on Tuesday, changing the law around establishing Māori wards.

Councils that established a Māori ward from 2020 without a referendum are now required to either scrap the ward or hold a binding referendum alongside the 2025 local elections.

The new law gives those councils until September 6 to decide whether to disestablish their Māori wards or run a poll at the 2025 elections.

The council has called public meetings in Ohakune on August 14 and Taumarunui on September 4.

The Taumarunui meeting will be based around an extended public forum where community leaders, iwi representatives, residents and ratepayer societies and community board chairs will be invited to present the views of their respective communities.

“Council’s decision on whether to keep or disestablish the Māori wards will be made after hearing public submissions at the September 4 meeting,” Kirton said.

“If we decide to retain the three Māori ward seats for the next term (2025-28), a binding referendum will be held during the October 2025 local body elections, allowing voters to say whether the district should have Māori wards.

“The outcome of this poll will not affect the 2025 elections.”

Kirton said if the council decided to disestablish the three Māori ward seats, a shortened Representation Review would be undertaken to determine new electoral arrangements before the October 2025 local body elections.

Before the law change, the council petitioned the Government for an exemption from the new rules, saying it publicly notified its resolution to introduce Māori wards in 2021, advising voters of the right to a poll to overturn the decision.

However, a public petition supported by right-wing lobby group Hobson’s Pledge did not get the required 5% of enrolled voters – or 385 people – to force a binding referendum.

More than 8500 people are enrolled to vote in the Ruapehu district.

The Ruapehu council’s first Māori ward councillors – Korty Wilson, Channey Iwikau and Fiona Kahukura Hadley-Chase – were elected in October 2022.

Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said in Parliament on Tuesday that if a council decided to hold a poll, its electoral officer would be responsible for the poll during the 2025 local elections.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.