Kaipara District Council’s decision to controversially can its Māori ward has survived a High Court challenge by Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua.
High Court Judge Neil Campbell has rejected a legal challenge by Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua against Kaipara District Council (KDC)’s decision to abolish its Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori Ward.
In September the rūnanga applied for a judicial review of the process KDC used in its August 7 decision to abolish its Māori ward.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua alleged after the that KDC made its August 7 disestablishment decision without consulting iwi and hapū including Te Uri o Hau, Te Roroa, Ngāti Whātua, Ngātiwai, and Te Kuihi. It said this breached the council’s legal obligations under the Local Government Act.
Contrary to high profile lawyer Mai Chen’s argument for the rūnanga that there should have been a consultation process, Campbell said in his December 18 decision that there was no precedent created by KDC’s past practice to require this.
“The Council has consulted only once in the past on a Māori ward question. This was not a practice that was settled in the sense of being ‘regular and well established’,” Judge Campbell said.
“It therefore did not create a legitimate expectation that the council would consult with the same iwi or hapū on the decision whether to retain or disestablish the Māori ward.”
Judge Campbell said that even if that expectation had arisen, the consultation that might have had taken place could have been excused due to the urgency created by the August 1 legislation changes (under which KDC abolished its Māori ward).
The one-off KDC consultation, with Te Uri o Hau and Te Roroa, had happened in 2020 when the Māori ward was set up.
Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson would not comment in the wake of the High Court ruling.
“I will need to take time to consider the decision,” Jepson said.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua has been approached for comment.
KDC is the only New Zealand council to get rid its existing Māori ward, doing so as hundreds of protesters raged outside just a week after new August 1 government legislation enabling this.
Jepson said after the KDC abolition decision meeting in Mangawhai in August that he rejected “the notion that Māori must have a designated ward to ensure representation”.
Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori Ward’s Pera Paniora, who represents 3880 people, said in the wake of the High Court ruling, the fact that she still held her role until the next local elections meant her representation voice would be at the council table until October 2025.
Paniora said she respected the High Court decision.
“I also personally feel there there was some strength in challenging this decision because no other council in the country disestablished its ward.”
Paniora also claimed that the only other council in New Zealand that had considered canning its Māori ward had backtracked after seeing the furore in Kaipara.
“They did not want to be likened to this council,” Paniora said.
KDC chief executive Jason Marris said in the wake of the High Court ruling the court action had come at a significant cost for the council, which had spent more than $180,000 defending the case.
Marris said the council’s consultation was undertaken in a compressed timeframe but still followed legislative requirements.
Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori ward will now disappear for the next local elections in October 2025 in a political lineup that will reduce by one person to nine people (eight councillors and a mayor), across three rather than the existing four wards.
Marris said they would be absorbed into the 2025 Wairoa, Otamatea and Kaiwaka-Mangawhai wards for the next local elections.
KDC’s October 2025 local elections will see the council’s 27,680 electors voting for three politicians in the Wairoa Ward, two in the Otamatea Ward and three in the Kaiwaka-Mangawhai Ward.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
