Gisborne district councillors voted to retain Māori wards yesterday morning [Thursday] at Te Pāhou Marae in Manutūkē.
The Māori wards bill passed its third reading in Parliament last week, forcing many councils to decide whether to retain the wards or disestablish them if they were created without a poll post-2020.
The vote means Gisborne will be keeping the wards and will be holding a binding poll at the local elections next year for Gisborne to decide on their retention.
Māori constitute 56% of Gisborne’s population, yet historically, they have been underrepresented in the region’s local government.
Māori ward councillor Ani Pahuru-Huriwai said the only reason she was sitting at the table that day was because of the establishment of the wards.
“I stood for council because there were Māori wards. At the time of campaigning, there were a lot of us. We understood how important it was that we showed up and put our hands up. We stood together then and we stand together now.
“It’s important that they see us at the table and contributing and being
active in the discussions and deliberations that happen at this table.
“It is important for our mokopuna to see ... ‘That’s my nanny. That’s a table that I can aspire to be at’.
“We’ve spoken before about how we have to walk in two worlds all the time. That is our life. We don’t just get to be just Māori.”
In November 2020. the council decided to establish Māori wards. It publicly notified its decision and allowed people to demand a referendum on the wards.
Gisborne Deputy Mayor Josh Wharehinga said at the marae yesterday: “We went to our community multiple times, we offered ourselves for a poll, but no demand was received.”
“We’ve reconfirmed our support twice now to retain the Māori wards in this term alone.
“And now we have to vote a third time because of a decision from the central government. Talk about wasting valuable council time,” he said.
Māori ward councillor Aubrey Ria said: “This is not my seat; it’s the seat of my people. I was voted into this seat by my people, and I hope for a long time after I have gone that this seat is still available to my people.”
Ria said before she and the other four Māori ward members entered the council, her kids, nieces, nephews and cousins had not seen a person who looked and sounded like them in local government.
“It’s not something that I want for my kids. We’ve heard from [local historian] Jane Leiton about local government and how it was systematically put in place to disadvantage Māori.
“Given that our census results came out and showed that we are [56%] Māori, we must consider that we are voting to represent our entire community.
“[70.4%] of under-25s [in the Gisborne region] are Māori. There are going to be a greater percentage of Māori represented among the adult population within Tairāwhiti within the next 10 years.”
Councillor Larry Foster said he had been supportive of the Māori wards right from the start, but was disappointed at the attendance and commitment rates of some of the Māori wards councillors.
“Some of those people that have been elected have let their people down hugely [but] I will be continuing my support.
“We’ve got a year to prove to the community the value of Māori wards for this council is huge.
“Here we are in a marae and only two Māori ward councillors are here.”
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz pointed out that attendance was not solely a Māori ward issue.
“There are also general ward councillors who don’t turn up.
“In the last 182 years, we haven’t seen Māori around our council table. Half of our people are Māori, and it is up to us that we make sure that we hear the voices of our people.
“Our Māori ward councillors bring a richness and different perspectives to the decisions made around the council table,” Stoltz said.
Councillor Andy Cranston said there were Treaty obligations to be a good partner, and “surely sharing the table achieves this”.
“At the end of the day, councillors have to represent the whole community. It has been a trouble to get Māori to the table, and if Māori wards enable this, then what is the problem?”
The ideal would be when Māori could vote for the general wards and he could vote for Māori wards.
Councillor Collin Alder said he would be voting with everyone to affirm this.
“I want to get out of here alive,” he said.
“I’ve outlined my reason for abstaining up until now. The challenge will be for Māori to get mobilised and vote for what they want.
“We’re not going to be able to avoid the democratic process. It’s going to come full-on. This is our challenge.”
Wharehinga called for division voting for the paper “so that each of us as councillors can own our view”.
Councillor Rob Telfer said he had never been in support of Māori wards as he did not want to put people in boxes.
“You’re Māori, you’re Chinese, you’re Indian. We are New Zealanders.”
The democratic process gave equal opportunity to campaign and be elected as councillors, he said.
All councillors but Telfer voted to support the retention of Māori wards.
