Following the government’s announcement that recently created Māori wards will be put to referendum, Māori councilors and mayors are joining forces to ensure the regions maintain a level of independence, to ensure Māori voices are heard at the decision-making table.
Local government minister Simeon Brown told media a bill will soon be introduced to allow communities to petition their councils to hold binding polls on Māori ward decisions.
‘The cheek of it’
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania says he is enraged by this plan of action.
“Te hia pai hoki o tēnei minita, māna anō e tohutohu mai ki ahau me pēhea ahau e whakahaere i taku rohe. E kore rawa ahau mō te tohutohu atu ki a ia me pēhea ia e mahi i ngā mahi e hiahia nei ia. Nō reira waiho noa. Hei aha tō tohutohu ki a mātou me pēnei, me pēnā.”
(The cheek of this minister, claiming he can direct me on how to run my region. I would never go and tell him how he should go about the things he wishes to do. So, leave it. Never mind your directions for us to do this and that.)
Yesterday the government said it would require a referendum for recently created Māori wards but Māori councilors are gathering together to ensure the survival of Māori voices in regions around the country.
Māori ward councillors
Wellington Māori councilor Nīkau Wi Neera says he sees no sense of fairness in this referendum.
“This whole discourse of fairness is nonsense. No other change to representation at the local government level requires a referendum. No other change,” he says.
Far North Māori councilor Babe Kapa had this response.
“Tā rātau hiahia iāianei kia whakakapihia, kia hoki tātou ki tērā momo āhuatanga o mua mā tātou, te iwi māori. E noho ki muri, kia tukuna rātou ki te tohutohu i a tātou.”
(Clearly what they want to do now is to change it back to how it was before for Māori. To have to sit in the back and let them tell us what to do.)
Māori will not lie down
In the Far North Māori make up more than 50% of the total population. But Tepania says Māori in his region are not going to sit in silence.
“E whakapono ana ahau ki taku iwi, ā, ki ngā kaikaunihera māori o tēnei rohe, pau te kaha. Ko te wero kei mua i te aroaro, ko te āta whakatakoto i te rautaki e puta ai tātou i tēnei pōuriuritanga i tēnei wā tonu nei.”
(I believe in my region and in the Māori councilors of the region, 100 percent. The challenge ahead of us now is to carefully lay out a strategy to help bring us out of this uncertainty.)
Three regions are expected to retain Māori wards due to them being established before 2021: the Wairoa District Council, Waikato Regional Council and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
Kapa says Māori wards are important.
“Ko tērā te mea nui kia mōhio te kāwana, ā whānui, e pēnei ana te titiro, e pēnei ana te whakaaro nā runga i te taimahatanga o tō tātou noho, nō mai rā anō.”
(That’s the main thing, to let the government as a whole know that this is our view and our thoughts, knowing the struggle we’ve had to endure for a very long time.)
“Koia tēnei ko aku whakaaro whaiaro i te mea me tautoko ōkawa te kaunihera i ēnei whakaaro kei roto i a au i tēnei wā nei, engari ka kaha taku whakahē i tēnei mahi, i tēnei whakaaro, i tēnei hiahia o tēnei kāwanatanga i tēnei wā.”
(This is my own personal view, the council is still yet to formally support my opinion on this at this time, but I strongly oppose this proposal, this idea of what this government wants to do,) Tepania says.
The referendum results will take effect in the local government term in October 2028.