Māori Wards … who blinks first?!

This week Hawke’s Bay Regional Council had to decide whether to either disestablish the Māori Wards we put in place for the 2022 election, or hold a referendum as part of the 2025 elections if we wanted to keep them. The outcome of the referendum would be binding for the next two Council terms (to 2031). 

The need to make this decision was imposed on us by new legislation that came into force on 30 July, and we had to decide by 6 September.

We unanimously resolved to retain the Māori Wards, so as matters stand, we are now required to hold the referendum next October.

In speaking to the issue, I made the following (admittedly strident) comments about this legislation, forcing our hand on a decision involving local body representation, and where we had already decided the issue in 2021 after extensive consultation and with overwhelming community support for Māori wards. 

I do not pretend to speak for my colleagues or the Council as a whole in now sharing those views here.  

In summary, I said that the legislation is an outrage. That it is “wrong-headed” at every level  – constitutionally, morally, factually, legally, for this region and on the merits. Taking each point in turn ….

Wrong-headed constitutionally, because the Crown (as Kawana under Te Tiriti) is taking away the guarantee that Māori (as the Rangatira) will have both a voice and vote at every Council table in the land. This in effect turns the relationship between Articles 1 and 2 of Te Tiriti upside down, and so is in direct conflict with our founding constitutional document. This point is a bit complicated, but is essentially an issue of “who’s calling the shots” here, or whether at local government level, Māori get to call the shots at all. 

That debate aside however, the Māori wards legislation raises a further constitutional issue, as to the balance of power between central and local government. Simply put, it is a clear and undeniable case of central government overreach into the local government representation domain. Afterall, we Councils don’t tell Parliament how to set its electoral boundaries or what voting system to use. So as I put it on the day, “Wellington, get out of our lane”.

Wrong-headed morally. It risks the Māori voice being drowned out yet again, as it has been by a dominant even exclusive Pākeha presence on Councils across the country since the 1860s, with Māori in the minority struggling to get candidates elected, or understandably wondering whether they should even bother trying. Cancelling Māori wards by majority vote through a referendum would simply perpetuate or continue this discriminatory impact on Māori, an exercise in colonisation in its own right. As I see it, this is morally wrong, if not a breach of basic human rights. 

Wrong-headed factually and legally. The legislation imposes a mandatory referendum, when previously a petition from 5% of electors demanding a poll was required as a form of ‘sensibility filter’ to the exercise. In 2021, the Labour Government removed the ability to demand a poll through such a petition, to make it easier to establish Māori wards. This legislation does more than reverse that change, it actually makes things worse, because it goes straight to the referendum step. If it had simply put things back as they were before Labour intervened, we would still have had the chance to test whether we actually want a referendum on this topic in Hawke’s Bay (costing the Regional Council alone an estimated $130,000), because a petition of 5% of all electors would have been required first.  

Building on that point, the legislation is wrong-headed for the Hawke’s Bay region, in particular. 

A highly divisive referendum is the very last thing we need right now in Hawke’s Bay, when our ratepayers (and indeed the Government itself) are urging Councils to focus on our core business, and we build to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle.  

The mandatory referendum will be a major distraction in 2025 at a time when we should be focussed steadfast on the recovery effort, working shoulder to shoulder with our mana whenua partners. We should recall that right from the outset on 14 February last year, Marae across the region were not only the vanguard of the initial flooding response, but centred within some of the worst affected communities by the cyclone. The referendum will put huge stress on our relationships as a broader community with mana whenua region wide, and only make the immense challenges ahead even harder to meet collectively. 

If you think I’m exaggerating on this point, consider this (and perhaps watch the Livestream video of the meeting on Wednesday!). The Coalition Government has been setting a ‘tinder box’ of tension around race relations since it took office and is now pouring accelerant on it, seemingly on a daily basis.  

Witness disestablishment of Māori Health Authority, repeal of s7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act, the forthcoming Treaty Principles Bill, this legislation on Māori Wards, stripping back use of Te Reo in Government organisations, and changing the statutory test for Marine and Coastal Area Act claims etc, meaning all hapū in Hawke’s Bay have wasted thousands of hours and huge amounts of precious money in the Court process to date.  

That is the highly volatile context Councils will face over the next year, and is hardly a cherishing prospect. Simply put, Wellington, we don’t need this right now!

Wrong-headed on the merits. The Māori world view has so much to offer for local government decision making, including a much-needed longer term focus; making decisions with our grandchildren or mokopuna in mind, not just the next election, and not kicking costly infrastructure projects down the road. Perspectives like putting the environment at the centre rather than the economy always coming first. Like thinking not just about our rights as individuals, but our responsibilities to other people and the collective community. Pretty much everything that has been missing in local government for too long you might think! 

If we sweep away that guaranteed Māori voice and perspective by majority vote next October, we will all be the poorer for it. 

These views aside, our hands were effectively tied, and a referendum there will now be. This is not the end of the road however, far from it, as now the real work begins.

First and foremost, as regional leaders we need to better explain why there is so much value and so much to celebrate in having a guaranteed Māori voice at our decision-making table, to give the referendum the best prospect of producing an outcome we can be proud of as a region. 

Alongside that civic education however, I would like to see a concerted and coordinated campaign of nationwide local government resistance to the referendum requirement, partnering with mana whenua across our respective rohe – to essentially stand up to the Government and say No, we are not doing it! … and let’s see who blinks first. 

That might seem a bit extreme to some, but on Wednesday the Council also voted to support Local Government New Zealand in lobbying the Coalition government to change its mind, and to entrench Māori wards as part of our electoral system at Constitutional level. So all I can say further from here is watch this space!