‘So excited about the future’: Far North votes 7-3 in favour of Māori wards
Far North District Council yesterday voted in favour of Māori wards.
“I’m so excited about the future,” Moko Tepania, Far North District councillor said after the meeting.
The council voted 7-3 to bring in Māori wards after an intense, emotion-filled debate in a packed Kaikohe council chambers that spilled out into the council foyer and beyond to the neighbouring Kaikohe War Memorial Hall.
Tepania forced the extraordinary council meeting after a notice of motion to his council that it once again considered Māori wards.
The council in October was locked 5-all in a split vote which meant a motion for the wards failed.
Mayor John Carter voted against the council bringing in Māori wards when FNDC considered the option six months ago. But he yesterday changed tack, voting in their favour.
“I have not been against Māori wards. What worried me was the timing,” Carter said after the meeting when asked why he had changed his position.
Councillor Mate Radich also shifted from voting six months ago against the motion bringing in the wards. Their shift resulted in today’s 7-3 vote with councillors David Clendon, Rachel Smith, Kelly Stratford, Tepania and John Vujcich voting for the wards, as they had in October. Smith seconded yesterday’s motion. Deputy mayor Ann Court and councillors Dave Collard and Felicity Foy voted against.
The council went a step further with its vote, also deciding to look at its current council committee structure, membership and delegations to “ensure iwi/hapu¯ membership to council committees, delegations and board committees”.
Iwi and hapu¯ from around Northland attended the meeting with people also watching on screens outside the chambers. Tepania said the
outcome was more than he had expected, with iwi/hapu¯ to be more involved in council representation.
The vote initially appeared as though it might not happen after Carter moved an amendment to Tepania’s motion.
This was to instead poll Far North residents at the time of the next local government elections in 2022. But his amendment was lost.
The decision means Māori wards or constituencies for the top of New Zealand from about Topuni near Kaiwaka to Cape Reinga. Kaipara and Whangā rei district and Northland Regional councils all about six months ago voted to bring in Māori seats.
Yesterday’s decision was greeted with rapture by tangata whenua present with tears, hugs and spontaneously breaking into the Ngāpuhi waiata Ngā Puāwai Ō Ngāpuhi, also known as Maranga mai.
Kelly Klink, among a busload of Māori ward supporters who travelled from Whangā rei for the meeting, said the decision was a great step forward.
Carter said there was now much work to be done.