Sign In / Register
Kaipara District Council is facing a High Court challenge after becoming the first local authority in the country to vote to disestablish its Māori ward.
Ngāti Whātua has applied for a judicial review of council’s 6-3 vote, on the basis that affected Māori were given insufficient time or opportunity to have their say. It wants the decision deferred until Māori have time for genuine input.
A council spokesperson confirmed that the application for judicial review had been allocated an urgent hearing in the Auckland High Court on September 11.
“Council intends to defend its decision to disestablish its Māori ward,” she said. “As the matter is now before the court it has no further comment to make at this stage.”
Councillor Ihapera Paniora, who represents the ward, told Mahurangi Matters it was unusual for a judge to move so quickly. She saw it as a sign that the issue was “nationally significant”.
“It’s actually unheard of,” added Paniora, a lawyer who worked as in-house legal counsel for the iwi before being elected. “If you know the usual timelines in the High Court, you’re looking at 18 months just to get a hearing date.”
National legislation enacted on July 30 requires councils to decide whether to retain or disestablish Māori wards by September 6. If no decision is reached, binding referendums must be held alongside the next election.
On August 1, Mayor Craig Jepson emailed chief executive Jason Marris, requesting an extraordinary meeting on August 7. Voting to disestablish the ward were Jepson, Deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen, Gordon Lambeth, Ron Manderson, Mike Howard and Ash Nayyar. Paniora, Mark Vincent and Eryn Wilson-Collins voted against, and Rachael Williams abstained.
Citing Section 81 of the 2002 Local Government Act (see below), Ngāti Whātua said in a statement it had no choice but to file for a judicial review, since representatives of local Māori were given insufficient warning of the extraordinary meeting.
No information was provided about the meeting and relevant documents were only uploaded on council’s website over the weekend prior to the meeting, it said.
“The whole point [of the legislation] is good decision-making and the council is required to give local Māori a real opportunity for input and to provide the relevant information and documents to allow for that,” the iwi said.
“Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua, Te Uri o Hau, Te Roroa and Te Kuihi need time to bring their uri [descendants] together and get their views before they can respond on their behalf. This is not optional on their part.
“They also cannot speak at the extraordinary meeting to councillors to convey the view of their uri until they have had a chance to speak to their uri.”
Ngāti Whātua hopes council will engage properly with Māori, “so that we don’t have to argue this matter in the High Court”.
Paniora said she does not see the August 7 vote changing her role in any way.
“It’ll be just the same as what I’ve been doing for the past year-and-a-half, which is advocating for the community, speaking on issues pertaining to the community and to Māori in particular.
“Absolutely nothing changes for me day-to-day. I still have my job, I still have my responsibilities to the community – now more so than ever.”
Paniora would not comment on whether she would consider running in next year’s election.
“I’m not telling a newspaper what may happen in 18 months’ time,” she said. “I’m hardly in a position to grab my crystal ball and say what will happen.”
Local Government Act of 2002
Section 81 (1): Contributions to decision-making processes by Māori
A local authority must—
(a) establish and maintain processes to provide opportunities for Māori to contribute to the decision-making processes of the local authority; and
(b) consider ways in which it may foster the development of Māori capacity to contribute to the decision-making processes of the local authority; and
(c) provide relevant information to Māori for the purposes of paragraphs (a) and (b).
