Prominent Māori leader Pita Tipene is calling on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to sack his party’s Act coalition partner in the wake of a chaotic Kaipara District Council Māori ward meeting.
“The Prime Minister is a good man. He needs to do the right thing,” Tipene (Ngāti Hine) said.
“He should pull the coalition agreement apart and kick Act out.”
Tipene’s call comes after what he said was a fiery, and at times barely under control, Kaipara District Council (KDC ) meeting on August 7.
The council voted to abolish its Māori ward, the first in the country to do so first under new legislation.
Tipene said the meeting appeared unsafe at times.
“People didn’t keep their cool, including the Mayor. Mayhem eventually erupted,” Northland-based Tipene said.
Tipene said Act had pushed for the legislation that enabled KDC to get rid of its Māori ward.
And that new law came on top of Act party s Treaty Principles Bill, which the Waitangi Tribunal had on Friday (SUBS: August 16) come out strongly against in an interim report.
In response, Act Leader David Seymour said not even the Prime Minister had the ability to ‘sack’ elected representatives.
“The only people with that ability are the voters, and that’s the way it should be,” said Seymour.
“Mr Tipene is welcome to his opinion, but what he needs to realise is that in our democratic society he has the same one five millionth of a say as every other New Zealander.”
Seymour said the right to protest was important but intimidation of one side by the other “because you don’t accept someone’s beliefs is unacceptable”.
This had happened when a New Plymouth councillor’s car had been shot at. As a result, the councillor had felt unsafe to vote on Māori wards, Seymour said.
Act had campaigned on equal rights and would continue to do so in Parliament, he said.
Luxon’s office did not respond specifically to Tipene’s sacking calls but made a general comment to Local Democracy Reporting Northland.
“The coalition government will improve outcomes for Māori and non-Māori by reducing the cost of living, restoring law and order and providing better public services like health and education,” a spokesman for the Prime Minister said.
Tipene, who is also Waitangi National Trust chairman, said coalition government legislation change, including by the Treaty Principles Bill, would likely lead to increasing social disorder.
The coalition government needed to ensure its policies did not put people’s safety at risk – as had happened at the Kaipara council meeting, he said.
Police were present, the Mayor and Māori ward councillor were yelling at each other, hundreds of protestors outside the building at times drowned out debate.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua lodged a judicial review application just ahead of the KDC meeting.
KDC councillor Ron Manderson, who voted to remove KDC’s Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori Ward, collapsed at his car after the meeting and required ambulance assistance.
What’s happening next with Northland’s Māori wards decisions?
Māori around Te Tai Tokerau were now watching the region’s three other councils in the wake of the KDC meeting, Tipene said.
These councils are making their formal Māori ward decisions in the next three weeks.
Their decisions will affect about 100,000 Northlanders elligible to vote in October 2025’s local government elections.
Northland Regional Council is next to decide on its Māori constituency, in what is expected to be a vote for its continuation on August 27.
Whangārei District Council will follow two days later in what is expected to be a close vote but likely in favour of keeping its Māori ward.
Collective Ngā Hapū o Whangārei Terenga Parāoa is calling on Māori to “fill the whare” to watch the council’s Whangārei District Māori Ward decision.
Meanwhile Far North District Council (FNDC) is expected to formally vote in favour of keeping its Ngā Tai o Tokerau Maori Ward on September 5.
Local Democracy Reportng is local body journalism funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
