Voting in election. Photo by Element5 Digital. Pexels.
Waikato has Māori wards at Waikato regional council level, in the Waipā, Waikato and Ōtorohanga districts and Hamilton city.
Good Local Media neighbours – Ruapehu, Matamata-Piako and Taupō districts also have them.
The orange man is used extensively in Electoral Commission publicity to advertise elections.
Leaders of those councils with Māori wards speak of their worth, but their value to council operations has not made headlines, making the campaigns for some candidates a double one – be elected, and convince the entire electorate of the value of the seat.
The decision by the Labour led government in 2021 to remove the power of veto from electorates was an acknowledgement that democracy may work for the majority, but not for the minority.
That is effectively being overturned. Voting has now started in the local body elections – and voters in 42 council elections are being asked to say yes or no to Māori wards.
Waipa Maori ward candidates Dale-Maree Morgan, left, and Yvonne Waho, extreme right show their support with others in Cambridge. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
The Local Government (Māori Wards) Amendment Act requires councils which introduced Māori wards without polling residents to hold a binding poll or remove them.
But Waikato Regional Council’s two Māori wards are exempt because they were established in 2012 – and predate the 2021 amended legislation.
There, sitting councillor Kataraina Hodge in Ngā Hau e Wha and Tipa Mahuta in Ngā Tai Ki Uta have been elected unopposed
Across the country the numbers could be against Māori wards surviving in a country where 15 per cent of the population is Māori.
A 2014 poll in New Plymouth resulted in a 73-17 vote against Māori wards and effectively spelt the end of city mayor Andrew Judd’s political career.
But the staunch advocate of the seats saw a later attempt to do away with the wards in his city fall at the first hurdle – which was to get 5000 people to sign a petition.
The Act Party brands Māori wards race-based representation which is contrary to its equal rights and democracy platform.
Māori ward candidates arguing the value of their seats may wonder at how Te Pati Māori’s attack on “pakeha media” after winning the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election will assist their cause.
Waipa Maori ward candidate Yvonne Waho, third right, waves with supporters at a major Cambridge roundabout. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
