Kaipara District Council votes to disestablish Māori ward

Kaipara District Council has voted to disestablish its Māori ward, becoming the first council to do so under new rules, in a tense council meeting.

Councillors voted 6 to 3 in favour of disestablishing the Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward.

Kaipara mayor Craig Jepson, Deputy mayor Jonathan Larsen and councillors Gordon Lambeth, Mike Howard, Ron Manderson, and Ash Nayyar voted for the removal of KDC's Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward ahead of the next local elections in October 2025 - as protesters outside the meeting erupted into haka and banged on the meeting venue walls.

Māori ward councillor Pera Paniora, and councillors Mark Vincent and Eryn Wilson-Collins voted against the council removing the ward. Councillor Rachel Williams abstained.

Jepson said he was elated at the decision.

He hoped a wave would start across other councils in New Zealand and Kaipara could now move forward constructively.

"I reject the notion that Māori must have a designated ward to ensure representation," Jepson said.

"The establishment and need for Māori wards relies on a false narrative," he said.

KDC must now do a representation review that would normally take five months in a much shorter timeframe.

After the meeting, Paniora criticised the council decision as undemocratic because she said the community had not had a chance to have its say.

Paniora tried to get today’s council meeting to pause its decision so they could talk to Māori first, but her efforts failed.

The KDC Māori ward will stay in place until the next local election.

Paniora said she would continue to represent her ward as part the wider Kaipara rohe as KDC’s Māori ward councillor until then.

Being a Māori ward councillor gave her the mandate to speak for Māori, but she said she would not have that same mandate as a general ward councillor.

Paniora said her message to other Māori ward councillors around New Zealand in the wake of today’s KDC decision was for them to be strong.

“Kia kaha,” Paniora said.

Earlier, protesters disrupted the meeting.

A protester stepped through the council meeting room doors, opened by Māori ward councillor Pera Paniora, and her haka drowned out the meeting as Democracy Northland's Frank Newman was speaking.

Jepson adjourned the meeting, just half an hour after it began.

Police removed the protester performing the haka from the doorway.

Blinds covering the meeting venue's windows and glass doors, that had been raised by Paniora, were then pulled down again.

The meeting was resumed at about 10.05am, with protesters singing outside while it continued.

Jepson later issued a warning to Paniora, saying if she continued to operate in a disorderly way she would be removed.

The meeting was again abandoned just after 11am as Jepson started speaking to his motion to can the council's Māori ward.

Paniora again opened the meeting venue doors, as Jepson started speaking against race-based wards.

Paniora went outside the meeting venue to tautoko (support) protesters.

Jepson sat alone at the top of the table with council chief executive Jason Marris as councillors left the room briefly.

A policeman inside the venue moved amongst the public gallery inside the building.

Police were also outside on the balcony.

The disruption subsided, Paniora came back and the meeting reconvened.

Jepson said Kaipara's Māori ward brought division.

Councillor Mike Howard said it was the hardest decision he faced in 21 months in local government to date.

Paniora continued to put points of order, as Howard became the first speaker to be allowed to talk for longer than the allocated five minutes.

Te Runanga o Ngāti Whātua has this morning filed judicial review proceedings against the council's potential canning of the ward.

Te Runanga o Ngāti Whātua trustee Deb Nathan said court proceedings had been filed because there had not been adequate time allowed for consultation with mana whenua over the council potentially getting rid of its Māori ward.

More than 200 protesters were outside the council's Mangawhai extraordinary meeting as it got under way and headed towards making a decision.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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