Katene Rahui: Local Electoral (Maori Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Katene Rahui: Local Electoral (Maori Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:664;Page:11800] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 I am delighted to stand to formalise the support of the Maori Party for the Local Electoral (Maori Representation) Amendment Bill a very important bill put forward by my colleague Te Ururoa Flavell. This bill is a genuine and well-developed intervention to invest in the decision-making process on matters of concern and of cultural significance to the Maori community. The issues of representation and participation by Maori are core requirements if we are to establish a nation that lives up to the promise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Establishing Maori seats responds to the expectation that Maori cultural values and knowledge will be regarded as being important. 
The bill is also an excellent means of responding to the Local Government Act 2002 which I remind the House sets out the obligations of local authorities in relation to the involvement of Maori in decision-making processes. That legislation specifies that a local authority must establish and maintain processes to provide opportunities for Maori to contribute to its decision-making processes. Local authorities must consider ways in which they may foster the development of Maori capacity to contribute to their decision-making processes. When those authorities are making significant decisions relating to land or a body of water they are required by law to take into account the relationship of Maori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral land water sites wahi tapu valued flora and fauna and other taonga. 
That legislation itself indeed like sections 6 7 and 8 of the Resource Management Act is a genuine and very positive approach towards supporting opportunities for Maori in decision making. But the truth is as every member of this House could testify that Maori representation at the local level leaves a lot to be desired. Quite simply it is under-representation and it is disproportionate to either the population or what we should expect to see or have in the representation of a Treaty partner. 
Mr Flavell spoke earlier about the findings of the research by Christine Cheyne and Veronica Tawhai about Maori engagement with local government. Their research revealed that participants felt there was little opportunity for Maori representation or for consideration of Maori issues in local government nor for the incorporation of tikanga and Maori processes in local government and where it is incorporated that is often tokenistic. We have heard throughout the debate today about the poor representation of Maori across local government right throughout the country. I have had an opportunity to look through the report of the Attorney-General under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act in which I believe he lays out a case for positive discrimination. Again I remind the House that we are talking about the Treaty partner experiencing representation of just 5 percent. 
The report provides a table of the numbers of territorial and regional seats when compared under the formula proposed in this bill and that set out under the Local Electoral Act 2001. If I look at my electorate of Te Tai Tonga looking for instance at the regional authorities I can see that the numbers are not huge. Indeed in the West Coast region the Canterbury region and the Otago region we are talking about one Maori seat. When we go to Southland the numbers leap hugely to two seats. Moving into the territorial authority area and looking at Waitaki Dunedin City Gore Queenstown Lakes Waimate Wellington City Kaikoura Buller Grey Tasman Nelson Hurunui Waimakariri Christchurch City Selwyn Timaru Ashburton and Central Otago all we are talking about in any of those 18 areas is one Maori seat respectively. But there is an explosion in the Chatham Islands territory where it is proposed that five out of the eight seats would be Maori. The key thing is that the number of Maori seats is in proportion to the total Maori population of the relevant territorial region—in proportion; neither under-represented nor over-represented but just right. 
I am proud that the Maori Party has put forward this bill and I congratulate the hard-working member for Waiariki on his efforts to replicate the model expressed in the Bay of Plenty Regional Council as an excellent opportunity to advance Maori representation.