This week, I was one of over 50 mayors and regional council chairs to sign an open letter to the Government voicing our opposition to the changes the Coalition Government is proposing to Māori ward and constituency poll provisions.

You might ask what this is all about. For me, it is not so much about Māori wards as it is about consistency and fairness in our law.

By way of background; CODC currently has four Wards, Vincent, Cromwell, Teviot Valley and Maniototo. 

This is the way it has been more or less (the Vincent Community Board was a combination of two separate Wards until 6 years ago) since CODC came into existence in 1989. 

We have these Wards to reflect the communities of interest within the broader district and to ensure that decision-making reflects the views of those closest to where the effects of those decisions are felt.

The Wards also ensure that smaller population bases such as the Māniatoto and the Teviot Valley have representation around the council table so the views of those communities will always be heard.

Something we could do, but aren’t considering at present, is introduce a Rural Ward, so people who live outside of our main population centres could vote in a Rural Ward in an election, rather than in one of the other four wards. 

You could see the sense in this if we consistently had no rurally based people on council, because you don’t know what you don’t know, and if we didn’t have our two farmers and one grape grower on the council at present, the voice of a really important part of our community would be silent around our table.

This is why many councils in New Zealand have introduced Māori Wards; so that Māori, who have been largely absent from council tables in the past, will have a place so their voices can be heard. 

Were we to introduce a Māori Ward (something CODC is not contemplating at present), folk on the Māori role could vote in that Ward rather than one of the current four. 

They wouldn’t get to vote twice, just once, same as everyone else.

Māori wards and constituencies were first introduced by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in 2001.

At that time, the law had a poll provision allowing referendums on the issue of introducing Māori wards and constituencies, meaning if 5% of the ratepayers in a district or region where the council decided to bring in a Māori ward called for it, a binding referendum on the matter had to be held. 

As a consequence, a number of council decisions to introduce such a ward were overturned.

In 2021, the law was changed, which eliminated the poll provision and as a result, following the 2022 local elections, six of the 11 regional councils have Māori constituencies and 29 of the 67 territorial authorities had Māori wards.

This is the law that the current government is looking to overturn.

What gets me, and perhaps it is the lawyer coming out in me, is that it is this one, solitary decision of council that can be overturned by a poll and referendum. 

If we were to establish a Rural Ward as discussed above, there is not right to call for a referendum at law. 

If next week as part of our Representation Review council decides to drop one councillor from the Vincent Ward as we have suggested, anyone can ask the Local Government Commission to review the decision, but no-one can force a referendum. 

Just to be totally clear, of all the hundreds of decisions that councils make in a term, the only one where a poll can trigger a referendum is a Māori wards decision. And that, to me, is wrong.

I was on the telly on Wednesday night making this argument and as a consequence received an email from someone that stated, “I want to vote for who represents me in Council”. 

I replied that this, with respect, didn’t make sense. As we have four geographically based Wards, wherever a voter is in Central Otago, they do not get to vote for the majority of the councillors that represent them, as they can only vote for councillors in their Ward. 

Indeed, in our smaller wards, voters only get to vote for one of the currently 11 councillors around the table, plus the mayor. 

The same would apply if we had a Māori Ward, not everyone in Central would get a vote in that Ward, the same as now I don’t get to vote in the Cromwell, Teviot Valley or Maniototo Wards. 

But, it could be argued that, if we did have a Māori Ward, and/or a Rural Ward for that matter, people might better be able to vote within their community of interest than they can at present.

As a footnote, I have a lot to do with other mayors from around the country and I have not heard any of them say that, of those that do, having Māori wards bringing a stronger Māori voice around the council table has given anything but benefit.