Bill to abolish Maori wards veto passes

WELLINGTON: Despite a vehement fight from the Opposition, the public can no longer veto a council’s decision to introduce Maori wards.

The Local Electoral (Maori Wards and Maori Constituencies) Amendment Bill passed its third reading at Parliament last night.

Labour used urgency in Parliament to get the law change, using just a oneweek select committee process.

The rush was to ensure councils planning to set up Maori wards in the 2022 local body elections will not have those wards overturned by a referendum of local electors.

It would mean any public polls on the wards were not binding, although councils could still instigate their own polls to gauge public opinion.

Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta authored the Bill and said increasing Maori representation was essential to ensuring equity in representation and to provide a Maori voice in local decision making.

The law had been due to be passed on Tuesday night, but National forced the urgent debate on the legislation into yesterday evening by filibustering in the committee stage.

From 9am until well into the evening, National MPs debated every one of the Bill’s 10 clauses, which bumped the progression of 10 other Bills through the House.

The filibustering also caused the postponement of numerous public sector managers and ministers appearing before select committees.

National’s tactic was to show its vehement opposition on both the content of the Bill, saying it ‘‘makes a mockery of our democracy’’, and the use of urgency which it called ‘‘disgraceful and hypocritical’’.

National Party local government spokesman Chris Luxon said during the Bill’s second reading that the electoral system should belong to the electors, not the elected.

He said making the law change in urgency did not live up to Labour’s policy manifesto which promised to ‘‘ensure that major decisions about local democracy involve full participation of the local population from the outset’’.

‘‘It was cynical politics, and the consequence is that the broad New Zealand public are none the wiser as to why the change is necessary,’’ Mr Luxon said.

‘‘And that’s a shame, because that will cause more division.’’

He pointed out that despite the oneweek select committee process there were 12,508 submissions on the Bill, of which 76% were opposed.

National MP Nick Smith said the process ‘‘smacks of arrogance’’ and was even ‘‘Trumplike’’ by taking away the public’s vote because Labour did not like it.

Act New Zealand also opposed the Bill, while the Green Party and the Maori party supported it.

Maori Party coleader Debbie NgarewaPacker said they stood in ‘‘absolute celebration’’ of dismantling racism but wanted the Bill to go further and ensure mana whenua were represented on every council.

Green MP Elizabeth Kerekere said the Bill ensured Maori had a say on local issues across New Zealand.

‘‘The numbers of nonMaori who still think that they should retain the system of controlling Maori reinforces for me why this Bill is so important.’’

In 2002, the then Labour government, of which Ms Mahuta was a part, changed the law to allow councils to set up Maori wards.

Legislation included a provision allowing a minority of voters, just 5%, to force a public referendum and ultimately veto a council’s decision.

Since then, 24 councils have tried to introduce the Maori wards, but only three have been successful. — The New Zealand Herald