Ryall Tony: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based  Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Ryall Tony: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based  Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6773] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I move  
That the Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based Representation) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 The bill that I have moved and am debating tonight is a bill designed to repeal those provisions of local government law that provide for separate Maori wards and constituencies in local authorities. At present the Local Electoral Act provides for an option of separate Maori wards and constituencies at district and regional council level and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (Maori Constituency Empowering) Act 2001 mandates such seats in that region. If this bill passes it will repeal the provisions of the Local Government Act that allow there to be separatist race-based legislation or race-based seats on councils— 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: Have you got the support of the Maori Party to do that? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
:—I would not think so—and also to remove the provisions of that Act in respect of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. The outcome will be that there will be no racially based electoral representation in local government. 
When the previous Government brought in legislation to provide for separate race-based wards in local government the Labour Party hailed it as some sort of brave new world. Since that time not one local community has chosen to set up separate race-based seats—not one local council has chosen to have separate race-based seats. The provisions are unused and they are already antiquated. They are not necessary and they are divisive. Those communities that even considered having separate Maori representation soon found a complete lack of support in their communities for it from all groups in the community and they also found those seats divisive and completely unnecessary. 
The National Party view which we enunciated in our election policy at the last election is that race-based representation is no longer needed in New Zealand either at a parliamentary level or a local government level. We believe that it is divisive. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: That’s not what you told the Maori Party. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Well I have actually. Everyone knows what my view on this is. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: You said to them: “Let’s get into bed together.” 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I would ask that member whether he thinks he would have needed a separate Maori ward to get elected to the council he represented. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: No matter what I think—it’s what you think. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Well it does matter what that Minister thinks because he is the living embodiment of the fact that we do not need separate Maori seats to get Maori on to local authorities. That is a really important point because that is one of the arguments that Mr Ririnui and the other liberals on the Labour side keep making about the need for separate race-based seats. They say that Maori cannot get elected to local government without dedicated seats. Well I challenge members to tell Jacob Te Kurapa who is on the Whakatane District Council representing Murupara that he would not be there without separate Maori seats—that he needs separate Maori seats. They should tell Bryan Riesterer who is a Maori elected to a general seat on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council that he cannot be there because there should in fact be dedicated Maori seats. They should tell Tai Eru who was elected to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in the general— 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: No he wasn’t. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Yes he was. He was elected to the regional council in the general Rotorua seat and that member knows it. He was elected originally to the Rotorua electorate of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. I must say that I omitted to say that this bill would be referred to the Local Government and Environment Committee should it be passed. We think from our side that having separate Maori seats not only is divisive but also it limits the representation of Maori voters for this reason. Surely the issues that concern Maori should be relevant to all the people who are elected on to local authorities just as the concerns of other groups in the community should be relevant to them. But the accountability for Maori issues if we have only Maori wards is that members of councils think that only the Maori councillors need to be concerned about those issues. 
Similarly another reason we should not allow separate Maori wards is that it destroys the very important principle of equity of vote which underpins our electoral system. Here in New Zealand we have an equity of vote—that is the value of each vote in determining a member of Parliament is basically equal. That is why we have 55000 in an electorate plus or minus 10 percent so that the vote of each of those constituents is basically equal. Each person has an equal say in getting someone elected. 
But what happens when we have separate Maori wards? Let me tell members. In the Bay of Plenty Regional Council which is the only part of New Zealand where there are separate wards—and they did not choose to have separate Maori seats in the Bay of Plenty; it was forced on them by the liberal Labour Government which forced it on them at the last election— 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: No. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Do not say it was not forced on them because the Parliament passed the law to say the council had to do it even though the council at the time had a majority not to do it. Let us see what happens to equity of vote. In the Tauranga ward of Environment Bay of Plenty—that is a general seat—the person who only just got in was the chairman of the Labour Party in the area. He got 11600 votes. So that is what one needed to get elected in the Tauranga ward. 
John Carter 
: 11000? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Eleven thousand six hundred votes; but to get elected as the Maori representative in the equivalent sort of Western Bay of Plenty area one needed only 721 votes. Because that is what Raewyn Bennett got. So to get a representative for Tauranga one needs 11600 votes; to get a representative for Mauao Maori one needs 720 votes. In Rotorua one needed 7600 votes to get elected in the general ward. In the Okurei Maori ward one needed only 1700—that was for Tai Eru a good man. He needed only 1700 votes. So the very important principle of equity of vote is undermined by these separate Maori seats. 
The fact that there is not one local authority in this country that has chosen to have separate race-based legislation indicates that the House should support this legislation because the provisions that I seek to repeal are unwanted unnecessary and divisive. If members look at the only example in the country where we do have these electorates I ask them whether they think Maori are better served from having these separate seats. I do not think so. Actually what do Maori think? Do they think these are something that encourages them to vote more? If we look for example at the Western Bay of Plenty Maori seat Mauao 23 percent of the voters turned out. 
John Carter 
: How many? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Twenty-three percent compared with for example 40 percent in the Rotorua general seats. So even Maori were less interested in going out and voting in those Maori seats even though Mr Ririnui decided that they were going to be such an electoral advantage for him in the 2005 election. And look what happened! Mr Ririnui campaigned on these seats. He said to his Maori people: “I’ve given you separate representation on the regional council.” That was the centrepiece of his re-election campaign and what did the people of Waiariki do? 
John Carter 
: They didn’t turn out. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: They did not vote for him. They expressed their view on his bill by not re-electing him to that ward. 
So the National Party supports abolishing race-based seats. We think they are divisive. We do not think they are necessary. We think they are unwanted. We think that local government should be there to serve all New Zealanders regardless of their racial background. We think it is completely unnecessary for there to be separate or dedicated wards to secure representation of Maori people on those local authorities. Because in the Bay of Plenty we have shown that competent good people regardless of their ethnic background can be elected to local authorities. Just ask Jacob Te Kurapa ask Bryan Riesterer and ask Tai Eru about his first election.