At least 32 councils scrambled to meet Friday’s deadline to set up segregated voting via Maori wards or constituencies for next year’s elections. Overwhelming support was claimed despite low response to limited consultation.

These councils wanted to follow Environment Bay of Plenty, the Waikato Regional Council and the Wairoa District council in separate voting but were reluctant to do so because they knew their constituents could vote a proposal down. There are 78 local bodies in New Zealand.

A change to the Local Electoral Act 2001, announced on February 1, that abolished referenda on Maori wards, triggered the scramble by the most woke councils. Any reluctant councillors were subjected to charm offensives or war dances by activists.

The opportunity for everyone to vote should a council propose separate Maori seats was a legislated protection that could be triggered by gathering signatures from five percent of affected voters.

Repeatedly, local communities through referenda rejected attempts by councils to divide representation by race.

The law change overrode petitions that were current at the time in nine of these councils, six of which had already collected sufficient signatures to trigger votes, and a number of which had had referenda strongly rejecting Maori wards.

The table below lists the councils that have adopted Maori wards in the current rush.

The referendum column shows signatures received in the nine petition campaigns for binding referenda earlier this year. The submissions column shows, graphically, by the low response rate, that there is hardly any public support for them. The Maori roll column gives an indication of an expected level of support for Maori wards, since voting for Maori ward candidates will be confined to voters on the Maori roll.

                                             Referendum   Submissions        Maori roll       

     Regional councils

     Northern                          8703                none                       25,923

     Hawke’s Bay                                           1100                       16,957

     Horizons (Palmerston North)                  1649                       18,500

     Taranaki                                                   383                         7297

     District councils               

     *Far North                                                499                         14,048

     Gisborne                           792                 293                         11,109

     Hastings                                                   2089                       8576

     Horowhenua                                             227                         2770

     Kaipara                             1376                none                       1908       

     *Manawatu                                               none                       1535  

     Marlborough                                             none                       1832

     Masterton                                                 none                       1811

     Matamata-Piako                                       none                       1880

     *New Plymouth                  Not available  none                       4507

     Otorohanga                                              none                        980

     Rangitikei                                                 none                       1585

     Rotorua Lakes                                         none                       12,619

     South Taranaki                   903                none                       2448

     Stratford                                                   none                       336

     Tararua                                                     none                      1346

     Taupo                                 1756              none                      3871   

     Ruapehu                             551                none                     1965   

     *Waikato                                                   none                     7586

     Waipa                                                        879                       2504

     *Whakatane                                              none                     7508

     Whangarei                          5133              none                     9967                               

     City councils

     Hamilton                                                    994                      13,619

     *Nelson                                                      none                    1720

    *Palmerston North                                      none                    4814

     Porirua                                                       none                    4664

     Tauranga                              6000              none                    8077

     Wellington                                                  none                   5938

* Asterisks denote councils where Maori wards were specifically rejected in earlier binding referenda. The Nelson vote was 79 percent against and Waikato was 79 percent against in 2012; the Far North District Council vote was 68 per cent against and New Plymouth 83 percent in 2015; the Manawatu vote was 77 percent against, Palmerston North was 69 percent against, and Whakatane was 56 percent against, all in 2018.

Only nine of the 32 councils consulted the public. In a number of cases, councils just talked to local Maori they knew, which were mostly iwi representatives already on council committees. The low response rate suggests that advertising was too limited to reach most voters (this was certainly the case in Hawke’s Bay). A low response enabled activists to orchestrate apparent majorities in support of Maori wards.

Invercargill and Napier rejected Maori wards because councillors had the good sense to consider that they felt they had had insufficient time to give the proposal due diligence and considered that their constituents would not support such a move.

Hamilton, Manawatu and Stratford initially voted against them but caved in to war dances and other pressure from activists. During the process, the Carterton District Council decided to appoint tribal representatives to its committees, with voting rights.

Stratford is a curiosity. This town, where the streets are named after characters in William Shakespeare’s plays, and which had no Maori residents there before the mid-1960s, will have a separate seat for its 336 Maori roll voters.

Also bear in mind that since 47 percent of Maori voters are on the general roll, nearly as many Maori voters as shown on the Maori roll column above vote on the general roll.

Most are unaware that a discreet manipulation of data, that of using the total number of Maori on both rolls as the basis for allocating the number of Maori seats, instead of the number on the Maori roll. This gerrymander inflates the number of Maori seats.

The sales pitch that “Maori wards would enable Maori to be at the top table” is a lie since Maori councillors are already at the top table and have been there for decades.

In a truly egalitarian society, such as New Zealand claims to be, there is no need for special Maori representation in government, whether it be Maori electorates in Parliament, the Independent Maori Statutory Board in Auckland, or racially based representation in other governance bodies.

$1.3b for ‘Maori’ in Budget

The proposal to spend $1.3 billion in the next financial year on “Maori” cannot go without comment. Proposed spending includes:

1. $427.8 million supposedly for “Crown-Maori” relations, but actually for Treaty settlements.
2. $380 million to deliver 1000 new homes for Maori including housing on Maori land, repairs to about 700 Maori-owned homes, and expanding support services.
3. $242.8 million for Maori health initiatives including the new Maori Health Authority.
4. $150 million for Maori education including $20 million to support Maori boarding schools.
5. $42 million for Maori media.
6. $23.4 million for the well-being of Maori children and families.
7. $15 million for Maori tourism.
8. $14.1 million for tribal data collection.
9. $14.8 million for a Maori language strategy so that one million New Zealanders will be able to speak basic Maori by 2040. See See Budget 21

A total $1.4 billion has been set aside over four years to spend on Treaty settlements (which is on top of the $4 billion already paid). See Treaty settlements

Our position is that policy measures intended to support those who need special assistance from government should be based on need, and not on ethnicity.

Two govts under tribal rule plan moving ahead?

It looks like Jacinda Ardern’s He Puapua plan to set up two governments under a tribal monitoring committee within the next 19 years is quietly rolling on. The steps so far are:

1. The abolition of the right of local communities to hold binding referenda on Maori wards.
2. Forcing Maori language and culture on to government departments and local authorities, while the state-funded media replaced news with separatist propaganda.
3. Replacing English names of places, streets, towns, buildings, and government agencies with Maori names. Even the nation’s name “New Zealand” is being changed by stealth. 
4. Setting up a separate Maori Health Authority with veto rights over the entire health system.
5. Transferring the marine and coastal area to Maori, with a precedent set two weeks ago by the High Court in the Bay of Plenty.
6. Transferring ownership of the conservation estate to private tribal entities, as recommended by the Options Development Group.
7. Imposing 50-50 council-tribal control over water through the Three Waters Reform.
8. Imposing a revised history curriculum, that looks more like Maori studies, which intends to indoctrinate our children about the evils of colonisation.

If Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s review of local government follows the He Puapua plan, councils will consist of 50 percent Maori seats.

Our petition against the segregated governments plan has picked up 6581 signatures. If you have not done so already, click here to sign petition Reject co-governance

Donations needed to appeal Bay of Plenty coastal ruling

Will the Government stick up for all New Zealanders and appeal against the High Court judgement two weeks ago that granted a Bay of Plenty Maori group customary title to several marine areas?

This was despite having their claimed exclusive occupation of the area between Whakatane and Opotiki interrupted by land confiscation. The ruling involves several groups.

Donations are being sought for a private appeal to restore certainty to the common law in relation to claims for ownership of the coastal area of New Zealand.

Donations may be made to Private appeal