Staff oppose new ethnic advisory group
Staff have opposed a city councillor’s plan to establish an Ethnic Advisory Group, saying instead that the council needs a better way to listen to communities.
Nureddin Abdurahman, councillor for the Paekawakawa-Southern ward, last year asked staff to consider establishing an Ethnic Advisory Group – an idea that he said had been talked about for almost two decades.
Young people, the LGBTQI+ community, the Pasifika community, and the disabled community have specific advisory groups, along with an Environmental Advisory Group. All five advisory groups come with the disclaimer that they do not represent views from the entirety of their community.
But staff opposed Abdurahman’s proposal for a new group, instead suggesting the entire model needed an overhaul to improve representation.
“Adding a further advisory group at the same time as exploring other models would be confusing and counterproductive,” they wrote. A new model was needed with more support for representatives and less pressure on the group members to represent entire, diverse communities.
Staff also raised concerns about the expense of the groups, currently $13,000 a year per advisory group, saying the model was “not sustainable” due to the increasing sectors of the community asking for representation.
Abdurahman said the current approach was not perfect and could be improved, but establishing a group was still important. “These groups are important for democracy. We all have different identities and council should empower all of these groups.”
Advisory groups were often frustrated that they had not been listened to and complained they were used “like a tickbox”, but that could be improved if more support and resources were provided, Abdurahman said. “Why would we delay the Ethnic Advisory Group? We need to put more resources in and make it better.”
He was open to exploring other models, but said that should not come at the cost of a long-awaited advisory group.
According to the meeting agenda, Multicultural Wellington did not support an Ethnic Advisory Group because it would be hard to decide who was the right representative for different ethnic groups. (President Rachel Qi was approached for comment.)
Councillor John Apanowicz pointed out that just as residents’ associations did not represent entire suburbs, the Multicultural Council did not represent every ethnic group. He fully supported Abdurahman’s proposal for a new group and believed it would get support from councillors. The groups “provide a valuable pathway into council and enable people to directly consult on a regular basis”, Apanowicz said.
One former advisory group member does believe the system needs to change. Nick Ruane chaired the Accessibility Advisory Group representing disabled people from 2016 to 2023.
Local issues were important to the disabled community because councils had the power to design public spaces in more accessible ways, Ruane said.
There was always a tension between the group and the wider disabled community, because the advocates on the group were under a lot of pressure to represent an entire community with diverse and sometimes conflicting concerns. “Issues do get pretty heated around lack of access and the council not being willing to listen. People get frustrated,” he said.
Ruane wrote to mayor Tory Whanau in February “with a heavy heart”, saying the group was no longer fit for purpose and needed to be disbanded. There is a real lack of trust between disabled people and [council], both elected members as well as officers and this must be rectified.”
Council needed to listen to the broader disabled community and then develop a new, more appropriate form of consulting the community – but there should be a bridging period to ensure that representation continued. “Council needs to actually listen to what kind of voice mechanism is appropriate for the community,” he said.
– The council will discuss the proposed Ethnic Advisory Group at Wednesday’s Social, Cultural and Economic Committee meeting.