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2025 New Zealand local referendums on Māori wards and constituencies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2025 New Zealand local referendums on Māori wards and constituencies are upcoming referendums to be held from 9 September until 11 October 2025, on the question of whether to have dedicated Māori wards and constituencies on local councils in New Zealand. The referendums will occur alongside that year's nation-wide local elections.
The referendums will be held for 37 local councils and 5 regional councils, in total 42 councils.
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Key dates
Key dates relating to the local referendums are as follows:[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
| early April | Electoral Commission sent out enrolment update packs. |
| 10 July | Enrolment closes for switching to the Māori or general roll. |
| 1 August | Enrolment closes for the printed electoral roll. |
| 9 September | Postal voting opens. |
| 10 October | Last day to enrol to vote. |
| 11 October | Polling day — The voting documents must be at the council before voting closes at midday/12:00pm. |
| Preliminary results to be released as soon as readily available afterwards. |
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Background
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The referendums were spurred by the ruling National-led coalition government's passing of the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2024, reinstating the requirement that councils must hold referendums before establishing Māori wards that the previous Labour government had removed. Councils that had introduced Māori wards without holding a referendum were required to hold a poll at the 2025 elections if they wished to keep them.[8]
Only two of the 45 councils with current or proposed Māori wards voted against holding a poll to determine their future. Several councils said they wanted to look into legal advice with regards to ignoring the government's requirement to hold polls.[9] Tauranga City Council is not holding a referendum because they already held local elections recently in 2024.[10] The cost of the referendums was projected to be over $2 million.[11]
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua appealed the decision of the Kaipara District Council to abolish its Māori wards rather than hold a referendum, losing in the High Court in December 2024.[9] Kaipara District Council and Upper Hutt City Council were the only 2 to abolish existing or planned Māori wards.[9]
The referendums followed a period of increased pro-Māori activism (including Hīkoi mō te Tiriti), spurred on by perceived anti-Māori policies by central government.[9]
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Public opinion
Previously held referendums on the issue have generally resulted against Māori wards. In the Far North, for example, residents voted 2-to-1 against them in a 2015 poll held for that district's represention review for the 2016 and 2019 elections.[12]
Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford said that in submissions to the council on the topic, 53% had been in support of Māori Wards.[13]
In Hawke's Bay, Hastings District Council saw 76% support for Māori Wards amongst submissions made to the council on the topic in 2021; Napier City Council saw 60% of 2300 submissions in support in August 2024.[14]
Debate
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Arguments in support of Māori wards
Social justice and representation
Bridget Bell, a Māori ward councillor in the Manawatū District, said that an "immense" amount of effort had been made by iwi to secure their voice on council, and that the wards were crucial to ensuring they were heard and that equity was fought for. As an example, she claimed that Marae in the district now received a similar level of support as rural villages, unlike previously.[15]
Kassie Hartendorp, in an op-ed for E-Tangata, said that Māori wards were about "equity". She said that getting rid of the them would "reverse" progress on Māori representation at the local level, pointing to a report by the Human Rights Commission that Māori were underrepresented on councils;[16] as an example, only 5% of successful candidates in 2007 were Māori, despite comprising 15% of the population. She pointed to colonisation as the root course of this discrepancy.[16] She said that through her work at ActionStation with community members, she had heard of the positive contributions and relationships that had formed between council and iwi groups as a result of the increased Māori representation brought about by the introduction of Māori wards.[16] She called out racism as a major driving factor of the anti-Māori ward side. She said that in a claim that she and ActionStation brought before the Waitangi Tribunal related to the Local Government (Māori Wards) Amendment Act, that the tribunal found that the law change was a direct breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.[16]
Pere Paniora, a Māori ward councillor in the Kaipara District (whose council voted to abolish their Māori ward), said that "undoubtedly" council will lose their connection to the Māori community. She went on to say, "I've spoken to many rangatahi[b] who are proud to have a face and a council that represents them, that looks like them, that comes from the same background as them."[15]
Cost savings
Whakatāne Māori ward councillor Toni Boynton argued that the existence of the district's Māori ward has helped save the council hundreds in thousands of dollars in legal costs; local iwi had repeatedly taken the council to court over decisions they felt had been made without consulting them with regards to issues that affect Māori. Since the introduction of the ward there has been no litigation.[15]
Arguments against Māori wards
Democracy and equal rights
In a press release, David Seymour (leader of ACT New Zealand) called Māori wards "undemocratic". He railed against co-governance, saying it placed group identity over individual dignity. He said that abolishing Māori wards would restore democracy to local communities.[17]
The right-wing[18] news website Centrist released an op-ed explaining some arguments against Māori wards.[19] They said that separate representation for Māori would disrupt unity, and cause tension and resentment in communities.[19] The op-ed said that Māori already have the same opportunities as other New Zealanders, and thus there is no need to have Māori wards since Māori should be able to be elected on their own merits as individuals.[19] The op-ed said that proponents of Māori wards were advocating for equity of outcomes rather than equality of opportunity. Kaipara mayor Craig Jepson was quoted as saying that pro-Māori ward arguments feed into a "false narrative" that was "condescending" to Māori. The op-ed also alleged that the mainstream media was biased against anti-Māori ward proponents, saying they would focus on framing them as racist rather than engaging with the issue.[19]
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Campaign
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Pro-Māori wards
Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori would all campaign in support of Māori wards.[20][21][22]
In April, Māori ward councillors from across the country met in Taupō as part of the annual meeting of Local Government New Zealand's subcommittee for Māori elected members, Te Maruata. Many were up for re-election, and faced having to campaign both for themselves and for the continued existence of Māori wards.[15]
A group called Stronger Together Keep Māori Wards formed in Palmerston North, organised by Unions Manawatū.[23]
Anti-Māori wards
ACT New Zealand for the first time would put forward candidates in local elections; candidates from the group would campaign against Māori wards.[24]
Hobson's Pledge billboard incident
The lobby group Hobson's Pledge released a series of advertisements featuring a stock photo of a Māori woman with a moko kauae and the message "My mana doesn't need a mandate – Vote no to Māori wards". The individual woman pictured did not consent to her image being used and was distraught that her image was being used to promote a view she was "staunchly" opposed to.[25] The photo was released on iStock and Shutterstock and labelled "editorial use only"; Hobson's Pledge said that they had followed all legal requirements for their use of the photo.[25] The group took down the billboards.
Endorsements
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Question
Voters will have the choice of ticking either the box that says "I vote to keep the Māori ward/constituency" or the box that says "I vote to remove the Māori ward/constituency".[12]
Results
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Notes
References
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