Brown SimeonLOCAL GOVERNMENT (ELECTORAL LEGISLATION AND MĀORI WARDS AND MĀORI CONSTITUENCIES) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): I present a legislative statement on the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill.SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon SIMEON BROWN: I move That the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 21 June 2024 and that the committee have authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington area despite Standing Orders 193 195 and 196.I'm pleased to be here today with this local electoral bill. This bill will contribute to further strengthening our local democracy by reintroducing polls on the establishment of Māori wards requiring councils to hold a poll at the 2025 local elections if they did not hold a poll prior to establishing that ward and making changes to the local electoral calendar to enable the 2025 local elections to be delivered.In 2021 the previous Government removed the binding polls that councils had to hold if they received a valid petition to decide on whether Māori wards would be established in their constituencies. By doing so they also silenced local voices who overwhelmingly voted against it when consulted. We opposed the bill because we support the idea that local people in their local communities should be the ones who make the decisions on how they wish to be represented.This Government is committed to local democracy. We are not removing the right to establish Māori wards. However we want each local community to decide whether they want one or not. That is a decision for local people and local communities to make about their local representation. Under this bill councils will once again be able to resolve to hold binding polls on Māori wards and communities will be able to petition their local council to hold one if a council resolves that they don't want to hold a binding one in the first place. Binding polls will be restored with the same policy settings as they were prior to 2021 including that a petition from 5 percent of electors on a council's roll at the last local elections will require the council to hold a binding poll. Any person on the electoral roll for a council will be able to vote. A simple majority will bind a council to the outcome and the outcome of the poll will be binding on a council for the next two local government elections.The bill will also remove the requirement under the Local Government Electoral Legislation Act 2023 for councils to consider Māori wards every six years during the representation reviews if they have not yet established Māori wards.Since removing the binding poll mechanism in 2021 45 councils have decided to establish a Māori ward without having a poll. That is 45 councils where local communities—electors—did not get a direct say on whether they wanted Māori wards or not. This bill gives those local authorities the choice between two options. The council can choose themselves to unmake the ward or they can hold a binding poll at the upcoming 2025 local elections. These options will give the council the opportunity to avoid holding a poll if they consider that is the right choice for their community.The result of these polls will take effect at the 2028 local elections. The exception to this is Tauranga City Council which is holding their local elections on 20 July which is less than two months away and before this bill will be passed. Tauranga City Council will instead be given the same options as other councils to either hold a poll before the 2028 elections or to disestablish the ward for the 2028 election.We want Māori voices to be heard and represented. We also know Māori wards are not the only way to give Māori a voice in New Zealand. In fact members may recall that the Kaikōura District Council unanimously voted no to establishing a Māori ward and instead decided to continue to work in partnership with mana whenua to investigate other options of greater inclusion and council decision-making.The Local Government Act also requires local authorities to have processes in place for consulting with Māori in accordance with the principles of consultation under the Act. We expect on this side of the House that local councils will continue to engage with Māori as they have previously when it comes to the matters that affect them. We also respect the fact that voters will be able to have their say and in some communities they may well decide to keep the Māori wards. They may well keep them and that is up to the voters in those local communities. Even prior to the 2021 change councils had had binding polls and those communities had voted to support those wards. So I say to members on the other side of the House: what have they got to be afraid of with democracy? What have they got to be afraid of with democracy? Ultimately it is the public having their say. Every three years we're privileged enough to live in a democracy in New Zealand and to vote for a Government and every three years we're privileged enough to be in a democracy and vote for local councils—for mayors and councillors and community board members—to represent us in our communities. But there are some decisions which ultimately we leave to voters to be able to make and to decide upon and generally those decisions are constitutional decisions. Whether it's a parliamentary term or whether it's the type of voting system we allow the voters of New Zealand to have their say on those matters and it's the same when it comes to local councils. When a council is deciding whether to make a significant constitutional change to put in place Māori wards ultimately they should be able to let the public have their say on what is a significant change in their local community. I say again to the people on the other side of this House: what should they be afraid of when it comes to democracy in this country? This side of the House supports democracy. They clearly do not.Lastly the bill makes a couple of small changes to support participation in the 2025 local elections. As members know all councils use postal voting for local elections and have done so since 1995. New Zealand Post provides almost all of these services for local elections and as postal volumes have declined it has become harder to deliver voting papers within the current six-day window that is currently required under the Act. New Zealand Post has informed the Government that it would take up to two weeks to complete nationwide delivery of voting papers for the 2025 local elections and beyond and as this creates a risk that some voters will not have a reasonable opportunity to have their voices heard I propose to adjust the statutory time frames for how long voting papers can be sent out in order to allow for that. But ultimately that does lead to the need to consider further changes around electoral reforms which this Government will continue to engage in those conversations.This bill will go to a select committee. People will be able to have their say as part of that process. The select committee though will be for a short period of time due to the fact that councils are currently legally required to resolve to adopt their proposals for representation reviews by 31 July 2024. Hence a shorter select committee process will enable the bill to be reported back to the House by the middle of June so that all remaining stages can be completed with the bill enacted by 31 July providing councils with the certainty they require. I commend this bill to the House.