The ACT party has pledged to repeal Māori wards if voted in at the election.
Māori wards and constituencies were first introduced by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in 2001 in a bid to ensure Māori are represented in local government decision making.
“ACT will repeal race-based Māori wards altogether," ACT Party leader David Seymour said today.
"Labour has been unapologetically undemocratic about local Māori representation.
"It has established iwi appointees on the otherwise democratically elected Environment Canterbury Regional Council.
"It attempted to force a disproportionate number of Māori wards on the Rotorua District Council, which was found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights by Labour's own Attorney-General. And it has attempted to force undemocratic Māori wards on communities that do not want them."
Seymour also decried the 2021 stripping of a provision which allowed communities to veto Māori wards in a vote.
"This provision had a binding referendum process where communities could oppose Māori wards' establishment, rather than allowing councils to unilaterally force them on constituents.
"At least six councils attempted to implement Māori wards which were democratically vetoed by this provision."
He said in repealing the ability for the 5% veto, Labour had repealed a "democratic provision".
"Labour removed New Zealanders' democratic voting rights because it believed they couldn't be relied on to vote the right way.
"Labour believed binding referendums, where communities could oppose Māori wards' establishment, were an obstacle to more Māori representation."
Seymour said that was wrong.
"A Local Government New Zealand survey shows Māori make up 13.5% of local representatives, which is very close to their share of the population as a whole. Māori are doing a good job of being elected to councils. There was no problem to solve.
"But Labour deliberately engineered the law in order that some people will get elected based on who their great-grandparents were – not on what they do, but who they are. Not on the value and the dignity inherent in every individual person, but on membership of a collective. Those are not democratic values."
He said New Zealand could not afford to "continue dividing ourselves along superficial lines" and needed to "celebrate the common humanity that unites all people".
According to law firm Tomkins Wake, in the 20 years to 2021 that New Zealand law provided for the establishment of Māori wards constituencies in local government, 24 councils attempted to establish Māori wards, and just three succeeded.
*Correction an earlier version of this story said ACT wanted to reinstate the veto provision, not scrap Māori wards altogether.
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