Democracy and dignity restored with Māori wards referendums

ACT Leader David Seymour is welcoming today’s passage of legislation restoring the option of local referendums for new Māori wards.

“Today is a great day for democracy, local decision-making, and equal political rights,” says Mr Seymour.

“Decisions over the structure of local democracy again will once again rest with the people who pay the rates, not the handful of councillors who spend it.

“Whenever given the chance to vote in a referendum, local voters have rejected being divided by race. Labour didn’t like that, so they scrapped the referendums. ACT however believes in local democracy, so we campaigned to restore the referendums, got it into our coalition agreement, and this week passed the legislation.

“ACT believes New Zealanders’ inherent dignity as humans and citizens is far more important than who our ancestors were. In a democracy, that means Kiwis can vote alongside their neighbours as members of a single community, not as different groups divided by race.

“We ought to trust voters to choose councillors that best their champion their values, regardless of whether those councillors are Māori, Pākehā, Chinese, Indian, or Albanian.”

The passage of the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill means councils that have established Māori wards since 2020 without a poll can disestablish them. If they don’t do this, citizens will be able to vote on them at the next local body election in 2025.