Māori wards and constituencies for urban, district, and regional councils in New Zealand are electoral areas where local constituents registered on the Māori parliamentary electoral roll vote for candidates. Like Māori electorates within the New Zealand Parliament, the purpose of Māori wards and constituencies is to ensure that Māori are represented in local government decision making.
Māori wards and constituencies were first introduced by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in 2001. Prior to 2021, a local referendum was required to introduce Māori wards limiting adoption. Consequently, attempts to introduce Māori wards and constituencies were defeated at several polls in New Plymouth, Palmerston North, the Western Bay of Plenty, Whakatāne, Manawatu, and Kaikōura.
In late February 2021, the Sixth Labour Government passed the Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2021, which eliminated the poll provision for establishing Māori wards and constituencies. Consequently, by the 2022 local elections, six of the eleven regional councils (54.5%) had adopted Māori constituencies and 29 of the 67 territorial authorities (43.3%) had Māori wards.
In late November 2023, the Sixth National Government pledged to "restore the right of local referendum on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards." On 30 July 2024, Parliament passed a bill that reinstated the previous provisions requiring local referendums on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards. Councils that had already established a Māori ward without a referendum were required to hold a binding poll alongside the 2025 local elections or to disestablish them. The final results of the referendums were 24 councils voted to remove them and 18 councils voted to keep them.
Background Although in 2006 Māori formed 14.6% of New Zealand's population, a Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) survey found that 12% of candidates not elected at the October 2007 local elections were Māori and only 8% of winning candidates were Māori. By contrast the 66% of the population who are European had an 84% chance of losing candidates and a 90% chance of winning. The inequality was marginally smaller in 2016, with 89.8% of elected members being European and 10.1% Māori.
A feature of New Zealand's parliamentary representation arrangements is the system of Māori electorates, which are for electors of Māori descent who choose to be registered on the Māori electoral roll and are intended to give Māori a more direct say in Parliament. Equivalent provisions for local government are set out in section 19Z (and following) of the Local Electoral Act 2001. These provisions are opt-in and allow territorial authorities and regional councils to introduce Māori wards (in cities and districts) or constituencies (in regions) for electoral purposes.
The number of members elected to a council through its Māori wards or constituencies is determined after determining the total number of councillors for the city or district or region, in proportion to the number of members elected to the council through its general wards and constituencies, such that:The number of members excludes the mayor, who is elected separately. The total electoral population includes all electors in the city, district or region, regardless of whether they are on the general electoral roll or the Māori electoral roll. The number of Māori members is rounded to the nearest whole number. If the calculated number of Māori members is zero, the council must resolve against having separate Māori and general wards.
Until the passage of the Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2021 into law, Māori wards and constituencies could be established by decision of the council, or through a local referendum (called, under the Act, a "poll"). If a council resolved to establish Māori wards or constituencies, it had to notify its residents of their right to demand a poll on the establishment of the wards and constituencies (the "poll provision"). If a petition signed by 5 percent of the electors of the city, district or region was presented to the council, the poll must be held within 89 days. All electors (not specifically electors of Māori descent or those on the Māori electoral roll) could demand and vote in a binding poll on Māori wards and constituencies. The result of the poll was binding for two local body elections, after which the council could choose to retain the status quo or adopt another change.
History Introduction Māori wards and constituencies have proved contentious, as the poll provision (outlined above) has frequently overturned councils' decisions. While a general establishment provision has been available since 2002, the first Māori constituencies were established for the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in 2001 under a unique piece of legislation. Population ratios were such that the council was able to establish three Māori constituencies. The introduction of Māori wards and constituencies was supported by the Labour, Alliance, and Green parties, it was opposed by the conservative National Party, the populist New Zealand First Party, and the libertarian ACT Party. (While he supported the 2002 amendment to the Local Electoral Act, the Green Party co-leader, Rod Donald, though not his Party, had opposed the Bay of Plenty legislation due to its compulsory nature and preferring Single Transferable Votes.)
In 2006, the National Party MP for Bay of Plenty, Tony Ryall (who had been Minister of Local Government for six months in 1998–1999), moved a private member's bill seeking the repeal of both pieces of Māori ward legislation, arguing that, since the opt-in provisions in the Local Electoral Act 2001 had not been used in four years, the wards were "unused... antiquated... not necessary [and] divisive." The motion failed.
Initial expansion and resistance
In 2010, Māori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell sought a law change to make it compulsory for all councils to have Māori seats. At that time, Bay of Plenty Regional Council was still the only local authority to have Māori representation. Flavell's proposal failed, but not before it was declared to be inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 due to using a different Māori representation formula that the Attorney-General Chris Finlayson stated would "lead to disparity in representation between Māori wards... and general wards." The difference was that the formula used the number of people of Māori descent rather than the number of people on the Māori electoral roll.
In October 2011, the Waikato Regional Council voted 14–2 to establish two Māori seats in preparation for the 2013 local body elections. A poll was not demanded and the constituencies were established. In late October 2017, the Waikato Regional Council voted by a margin of 7–3 to retain both Māori constituencies Nga Hau e Wha and Nga Tai ki Uta.
In 2014, the Mayor of New Plymouth Andrew Judd proposed introducing a Māori ward in the New Plymouth District Council. The council resolved to do so, but was defeated in a 2015 referendum by a margin of 83% to 17%. The backlash Judd experienced was an influence on his decision not to run for a second term during the 2016 local body elections. In April 2016, Flavell, now a Māori Party co-leader, presented a petition to the New Zealand Parliament on behalf of Judd that advocated (as Flavell had done previously) the establishment of mandatory Māori wards on every district council in New Zealand. In June 2017, a private members' bill in the name of Marama Davidson sought to remove the poll provision, but was defeated during its first reading.
A poll on establishing Māori wards at Wairoa District Council was held alongside that council's October 2016 triennial election and was successful; elections for three Māori seats at that council were held in October 2019. Following this result, five territorial authorities (Palmerston North City Council, Kaikōura District Council, Whakatāne District Council, Manawatu District Council, and Western Bay of Plenty District Council) approved, in separate decisions over late 2017, to introduce Māori wards for the 2019 local elections.
In response, the lobby group Hobson's Pledge (fronted by former National Party and ACT New Zealand leader Don Brash) organised several petitions calling for local referendums on the matter of introducing Māori wards and constituencies, taking advantage of the poll provision. These polls were granted and held in early 2018. Each poll failed; Māori wards were rejected by voters in Palmerston North (68.8%), Western Bay of Plenty (78.2%), Whakatāne (56.4%), Manawatu (77%), and Kaikōura (55%) on 19 May 2018. The average voter turnout in those polls was about 40%.
The rejection of Māori wards was welcomed by Brash and conservative broadcaster Mike Hosking. By contrast, the referendum results were met with dismay by Whakatāne Mayor Tony Bonne and several Māori leaders including Labour MPs Willie Jackson and Tāmati Coffey, former Māori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell, Bay of Plenty resident and activist Toni Boynton, and left-wing advocacy group ActionStation national director Te Raukura O'Connell Rapira. In response, ActionStation organised a petition calling on the Minister of Local Government, Nanaia Mahuta, to change the law so that establishing a Māori ward uses the same process as establishing a general ward (general wards are not subject to the poll provision, but have a different appeals process through the Local Government Commission).
The Labour Party has supported changes to the laws regarding Māori wards and constituencies. Two bills were introduced by backbench Labour MP Rino Tirikatene in 2019 (the first a local bill seeking permanent representation for Ngāi Tahu on the Canterbury Regional Council; the second a member's bill to ensure that the repeal of legislation establishing Māori seats in Parliament must be subject to a 75% supermajority of Parliament), but both failed.
2021–22 legislative reform
Nine local authorities determined to establish Māori wards ahead of the 2022 New Zealand local elections (Whangarei District Council, Kaipara District Council, Northland Regional Council, Tauranga City Council, Gisborne District Council, Ruapehu District Council, Taupō District Council, New Plymouth District Council, and South Taranaki District Council). While polls for some of those districts were signalled, Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta stated in November 2020 that removing the poll provision was "on her list" for the Sixth Labour Government's second term.
On 1 February 2021, Mahuta announced that the Government would establish a new law upholding local council decisions to establish Māori wards and abolishing the existing law allowing local referendums to veto decisions by councils to establish Māori wards. This law would come into effect before the scheduled 2022 local body elections. On 25 February, Mahuta's Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2021, which eliminates mechanisms for holding referendums on the establishment of Māori wards and constituencies on local bodies, passed its third reading in Parliament with the support of the Labour, Green and Māori parties. The bill was unsuccessfully opposed by the National and ACT parties, with the former mounting a twelve-hour filibuster challenging all of the Bill's ten clauses.
Councils were also given a fresh opportunity to make decisions about establishing Māori wards after the law change; as a result, at the 2022 local elections, six of the eleven regional councils (54.5%) have Māori constituencies and 29 of the 67 territorial authorities (43.3%) had Māori wards. Until this point, only Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Waikato Regional Council and Wairoa District Council had had elections with Māori wards or constituencies.