Newly elected Māori constituency representative Elijah Pue says the Government’s plan to replace elected regional councillors with panels of mayors raises serious concerns for Māori representation.
Under the proposed model, regional constituencies – including Māori constituencies – would be eliminated. Regional councillors would be replaced by mayors on Combined Territories Boards (CTBs), who would represent voters from both the Māori and general rolls.
The proposal document released on Tuesday says the mayoral panels will also be responsible for implementing any Treaty settlement commitments currently administered by regional councils.
Pue said standing committees established through Treaty settlements would remain, but Māori seats and appointed Māori representatives would disappear.
“That does bring into question the rest of the Treaty obligations,” he said.
Pue was elected to Horizons Regional Council’s Raki Māori (Māori North) constituency in October’s local elections.
A binding local referendum held at the same time delivered a clear majority to retain the council’s Māori constituencies for the 2028 and 2031 elections, locking in guaranteed Māori representation for the next nine years.
Referendums were required nationwide on whether to have Māori wards and constituencies after the Coalition Government reversed legislation passed by the previous Labour Government. Forty-two councils – 37 territorial and five regional – held polls in October.
At the time, Pue said the Horizons poll result created opportunities for long-term planning and leadership.
“The key thing is bringing a Māori perspective to the table,” he said in October.
“This is about saying: with your hand on one handle of the basket and mine on the other, we can flourish together and protect our environment for future generations. The decisions we make today will impact on our mokopuna born tomorrow and in generations to come.”
Announcing the proposal on Tuesday, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said the current system was not serving New Zealanders well.
“Local government is meant to serve communities, not confuse them. But right now, the system is tangled in duplication, disagreements, and decisions that defy common sense.”
He said the reforms – the biggest for local government in 35 years – would strip out duplication, standardise processes, and drive down complexity and compliance costs.
Pue agreed that the system needed to be simpler but doubted the proposed model would achieve that.
“I agree there is need for change. I am for reform and for doing things better. But I’m not convinced that means removing councillors and replacing them with a mayoral panel. I do not believe that necessarily simplifies the system.”
He said he had expected amalgamation to be more likely than what was proposed this week.
“This has come from completely left field. No one knew this was going to be proposed. We were all guessing what reform could look like – we heard of this proposal for the first time on Tuesday.”
Pue said the 2023 report He piki tūranga, he piki kōtuku on the Future for Local Government “gave no indication that reform like this should occur or was necessary”.
The independent panel, with decades of experience in local government and public sector leadership, spent two years examining how the system needed to evolve over the next 30 years. None of its 17 recommendations for “a radical overhaul” anticipated the current proposal, Pue said.
“There is now a level of uncertainty as to what it means moving forward. I am feeling for Horizons and regional council staff up and down the motu.
“In this time, when the country is responding to economic, social and environmental challenges, is now the right time for us to be moving the deck chairs – or should we be working to get the basics right?
“Or are they saying you can’t be trusted, get out of the way and let us do it?”
Pue said that until told otherwise, councillors would continue to focus on “getting the job done”.
“We’ve got community outcomes to achieve, services, monitoring and publicly owned assets to see to, an environment to care for and an electorate to represent.”
The proposal is out for consultation until 20 February, with legislation expected to be introduced mid-next year and passed in 2027.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
