Non-elected members of Taranaki council committees, including Federated Farmers, will lose voting rights, while iwi representatives protected by Treaty settlements retain theirs.
A fortnight ago, local government minister Simon Watts had a law passed to ban voting by people appointed to council committees, saying limiting voting to elected councillors would strengthen democratic accountability.
Amongst those losing voting rights are iwi and hapū representatives appointed to councils across the country, most notably at Far North District Council.
Councils must bring the ban into effect within six months – but it doesn’t apply to appointments made under Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) has three iwi representatives on its policy and operations committees, thanks to the Treaty settlement laws of Ngāruahine, Taranaki and Te Ātiawa.
The three 2016 settlement laws share identical clauses: “to provide an effective mechanism for the iwi of Taranaki to contribute to the decision-making processes of the Council”.
The purpose is for the region’s eight iwi to have direct and effective representation in “a wide range of the Council’s policy, regulatory, and advocacy functions”.
The council’s corporate services director Mike Neild told a council meeting on Tuesday that other appointed members could still sit on the committees, but not vote.
“Our Federated Farmers appointees, district council appointees … we will have to work through … whether you want to retain as them as [non-voting] members of those committees.”
TRC’s chief executive Steve Ruru told councillors it would be for them to decide whether Federated Farmers or the elected members of other councils would remain at the table.
“I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t continue with them attending, and giving them speaking rights, but they will not have voting rights.”
Minister Watts had said it was useful and appropriate that councils appoint experts to help councillors.
“Councils can still appoint non-elected members to offer professional advice and represent communities, but those appointments will not come with voting rights or count towards a quorum.”
Ruru said district councillors who sit on TRC committees could retain voting rights if the council revamped its committees to become joint committees of all Taranaki councils.
Joint committees already exist, such as the Regional Transport Committee and the committee overseeing Stadium Taranaki.
But Ruru said changing to joint committees would need “some careful consideration given the Treaty settlement obligations”.
Regional councils are due to be abolished if the current Government is re-elected in November, but even that won’t remove voting rights from iwi representatives.
Under the Treaty settlement laws, any changes to committees must not “diminish the nature of the representation of the iwi of Taranaki”.
The Government has promised that Treaty settlement representation won’t be affected by the law change.
The new Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Act also removes community wellbeing as a purpose of councils, and imposes a standard Code of Conduct and Standing Orders across the country.
LDR is local body journalism funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
