In an extraordinary meeting this morning, the Kaipara District Council (KDC) has struck down its Māori ward, less than two years after it was established.
A motion to postpone the decision until iwi and hapū had been consulted was also shot down in a 6-4 vote.
The meeting was extraordinary for a number of reasons, including its derailment partway through when a peaceful protest chanting outside was invited in by Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward councillor Pera Paniora.
Jepson reprimanded Paniora, threatening to remove her from the meeting repeatedly for ‘disorderly behaviour’ with the pair locking horns throughout the meeting.
The move comes just a week after changes to the Local Government Act, introduced by the coalition government, allowing councils to get rid of their Māori wards before the next local elections without a referendum.
Councils may keep their wards past the 2025 local body elections but only if they put them to the electorate for a vote.
Watch the full meeting here:
Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngaringaomatariki principal Reno Skipper was the first person to speak, and used his five minute section to take issue with the timeframe around the vote.
“We’ve had conversation together, and we’ve never shied away from sitting down and talking about it. This cannot be done in five minutes. This is not what consultation is. This is not what working together is.”
Mayor Craig Jepson called for the meeting less than 24 hours after the coalition government passed the amendment to the Local Government Act in a letter to the chief executive.
Dame Naida Glavish is one of a chorus of voices who’ve called for Jepson’s resignation over the rush to disestablish the ward, a call Jepson has declined.
It’s far from the first time Jepson has found himself in hot water with Māori, with hundreds confronting him over his refusal to allow Māori ward councillor Pera Paniora the opportunity to say a karakia at the first council meeting held in 2022.
Paniora said the decision should be postponed until local iwi and hapū had been consulted, as per the council’s obligations under section 81 of the Local Government Act.
Section 81(1) requires that a local authority must:
(a) Establish and maintain processes to provide opportunities for Māori to contribute to the decision-making processes of the local authority; and
(b) Consider ways in which it may foster the development of Māori capacity to contribute to the decision-making processes of the local authority; and
(c) Provide relevant information to Māori for the purposes of paragraphs (a) and (b)
Section 82(2) also states:
A local authority must ensure that it has in place processes for consulting with Māori in accordance with subsection (1).
More to come.