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# Face of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/face-of-the-day-301/
- Published: 2021-02-02T17:30:44.000Z
- Updated: 2021-02-03T19:15:43.000Z
- Author: Good Oil Staff
- Tags: Featured, NZ, NZ Politics, Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 02:14

A former mayor of New Plymouth, who was spat at in the street over his support of establishing a Maori ward in the city, feels vindicated now [the government has stepped in to scrap citizen-initiated polls on the divisive issue](https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/124112201/new-plymouth-council-leaders-welcome-local-government-minister-nanaia-mahutas-mori-wards-proposal?rm=a&ref=goodoil.news).

Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has [announced a bill will be brought to Parliament under urgency](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/124111313/government-dumps-law-threatening-mori-wards-halts-petitions?rm=a&ref=goodoil.news) to ditch the “discriminatory” polls ahead of the 2022 local body elections.

**Andrew Judd** was New Plymouth Mayor in 2014 when the council voted to establish a Maori ward.

> It was thrown out a year later in a citizens-initiated poll in which **83 per cent** of those who took part voted it down.

[Read the full article here.](https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/300219695/former-new-plymouth-mayor-absolutely-vindicated-by-mori-wards-decision?ref=goodoil.news) Comment on it on *The BFD.*