New Zealand's Local Government Commission ruling against district-wide voting for Whangārei's upcoming elections is a "sad indictment" on council decision-making, a former councillor says.
Former Whangārei District Councillor John Williamson. Photo: Northern Advocate / Michael Cunningham
Former Whangārei District Council (WDC) councillor John Williamson says the commission overruling the council on what its political representation will look like going into the next elections backed his position.
The Local Government Commission (LGC) has this week released its 19-page decision on what WDC's political representation will look like, following an online 10 December hearing. The ruling can be viewed at on their website.
It has overruled WDC's September decision that there would be 13 political representatives - the mayor and 12 councillors - elected district-wide from just two wards for this year's 8 October local government elections.
The LGC instead has said WDC must have 14 political representatives - the mayor and 13 councillors elected from six wards - five local geographically-based general wards and a single district-wide Māori ward.
"The council went out and asked people what they thought about a local ward-based system but then subsequently radically changed tack, deciding in favour of district-wide voting - without going back out to people to see what they thought about that," Williamson said.
Such a radical change in council position, after having asked the public what they thought on a proposal, was a "sad indictment" on decision-making, Williamson said.
Williamson was one of the roughly dozen people who spoke against district-wide voting at the LGC hearing He was in favour of retaining locally-based wards.
Whangārei District Council's then new-look council elected at the last local government elections in October 2019 at their first post-election meeting in November. Photo: Northern Advocate / Michael Cunningham
This week's LGC ruling means 68,000 Whangārei voters will effectively go 'back to the future', electing councillors much in the way they always have via local wards - except for the district-wide Māori ward.
Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai said the council would accept the commission ruling. Electors would vote under the representation arrangements the commission had ruled in favour of.
This will see the following local wards - Bream Bay General Ward, Hikurangi-Coastal General Ward, Mangakahia-Maungatapere General Ward and Whangārei Heads General Ward. A fifth Whangārei Urban General Ward will combine the current Okara and Denby wards. There will also be the Whangārei District Māori ward.
The only boundary changes will be for a slight change to the current Bream Bay and Mangakahia-Maungatapere wards. The southern part of Maunu's Cemetery Road, (north of SH15 to the west of the city) moves from the current Bream Bay ward into the new Mangakahia-Maungatapere General Ward bringing minor changes for both in the new regime.
Whangārei councillor Carol Peters at first meeting of council elected at last local government elections. Photo: Northern Advocate / Michael Cunningham
The district-wide general ward was initially put forward by WDC councillor Carol Peters
Peters said she was okay with the commission ruling. This was because her initial proposal had come along with district-wide voting plus community boards. The community board part of her proposal had not proceeded. District-wide representation without them provided potential representation challenges.
Mai said the whole process had clearly shown the need for an overhaul of the Local Electoral Act (LEA), under which the commission operated.
She said her preference was to be able to present several representation options to voters, such as the district-wide voting, wards and a very small council with community boards.
"One of the shortcomings of the process is that [under the LEA] WDC could only put one option to our people," Mai said.
Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai. Photo: Northern Advocate / Tania Whyte
Another issue was that the LEA allowed only those against the council's final representation choice decision to speak at a commission hearing, she said. There was no option for those in favour to speak.
The commission ruled that WDC's political representation will see the same number of councillors representing each of the Bream Bay (two), Hikurangi-Coastal (two), Mangkahaia-Maungatapere (one) and Whangārei Heads (one) wards as there are now.
However, the number of councillors representing Whangārei city will drop by almost 30 percent to five. There are currently seven councillors representing the two urban wards that will merge into Whangārei Urban General Ward - Okara ward's current three councillors and Denby ward's current four.
Williamson said it was unfortunate to see this urban representation drop.
Half the voting population of Whangārei district lives in Whangārei city.
Federated Farmers Northland president Colin Hannah. Photo: Northern Advocate via LDR
LGC hearing submittor and Northland Federated Farmers leader Colin Hannah said in principle, he was pleased with the commission ruling, because it helped maintain the rural vote.
He spoke against the district-wide proposal because of concerns this would potentially be lost.
"Many people in town would be surprised how much rural people pay in rates towards Whangārei's urban area," Hannah said.
Mai said the LEA was a complex piece of legislation for people on the street to understand.
She said the way things had unfolded drew attention to current system's failings.
These included constraints and anomalies that arose such as the requirement for the number of people councillors represented to be roughly the same, within plus or minus 10 percent of each other.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
