NZCPR Newsletter: Labour’s Divisive Legacy

When Helen Clark’s Labour Government introduced Maori Wards into the Local Electoral Act in 2002, the Deputy Chairman of the Local Government Select Committee David Cunliffe stressed they could only be established with community support: “There is a general referendum and a general trigger mechanism that means no Maori ward can be established unless a majority of all electors on the electoral roll say that should be the case.”

The “trigger mechanism” he described was a petition right enabling five percent of voters to call for a referendum, so the community as a whole could decide whether to introduce Maori wards.

The reason a “trigger mechanism” was needed was that establishing Maori wards requires the introduction of the Maori Electoral Roll, and any constitutional change involving the voting system requires a higher threshold - a ‘democratic safeguard’ to prevent those in power from manipulating the system for their own advantage.

Frank Newman: Councillor shows why Māori wards are not needed

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Kaipara District Council and was one of several people who spoke during the Public Forum session, which is an opportunity for a member of the public to address councillors on whatever their topic of interest may be.

Yesterday, the topic of interest was a motion to either retain or disestablish the Kaipara’s Māori ward.

I was part of a team from Democracy Northland who in December 2020 set about gathering signations to force the Council of the day to hold a binding referendum. Some months earlier the council had created a Māori ward without consulting the community at large.

The outrage that followed was such that we set about challenging that decision by using the petition right available at the time.

Graeme Reeves: Is New Zealand a “secular” society or have we descended into a “sectarian” society?

Noted humanist and author Jim Herrick defines secularism as follows,” Secularism in the largest sense means that people do not refer to religion to make decisions, to adopt policies, to run their lives, to order their relationships, or to impel their activity.”  

For our purposes we can substitute the word    “people” with the word “state”.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a sectarian as, “a person who very strongly supports the religious or political group that they are a member of, in a way that may cause problems with people of other groups.”

At the inaugural meeting on the Kaipara District Council’s Council meeting the New Mayor intervened when the newly elected Maori Ward Councillor attempted to recite, without notice or consent, a Karakia.

The Mayor justified his action as follows,” This is a council that’s full of people who are non-religious, religious, of different ethnicities and I intend to run a secular council here which respects everybody and I will not be veering from that .”

Don Brash: I admire Craig Jepson

Until a few days ago, I had never heard of Craig Jepson, and I suspect that that is also true of most New Zealanders. He has suddenly become almost as well-known as Meng Foon, the Race Relations Commissioner. Both men are hugely admired by some; and viscerally disliked by others – though those who admire Meng Foon no doubt detest Craig Jepson and vice versa.

For those who haven’t been following the media lately, Craig Jepson is of course the recently-elected mayor of the Kaipara District. He had the effrontery to point out to a Maori member of his council that reciting a karakia, or any other kind of prayer, at the beginning of a council meeting was quite inappropriate, given that the council is a secular institution.

Frank Newman: Incompetent Kaipara

Last week the Auditor General, Lyn Provost, tabled a report into a 20-month review of the Kaipara District Council’s (KDC) mismanagement of the Mangawhai community wastewater scheme. For an auditor, the language in the report is unusually forthright and clear. The only muddling comes when the Auditor General justifies the short comings of her own department, the government Audit Office. 

Ms Provost summarises her findings as follows:

 “I summarise it as a woeful saga. Overall, the inquiry found that:

·        KDC failed to attend to its fundamental legal and accountability obligations.

·        KDC effectively lost control of a major infrastructure project.

·        Some of the work done on behalf of the Auditor-General has fallen short of the    standards I expect.”