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Summarised by Centrist
Māori wards will be removed from 25 local councils following nationwide referendums, marking a sharp reversal of the previous government’s push for race-based seats in local government.
In Hastings, Māori ward councillor Heather Te Au-Skipworth was re-elected but said she was “really, really gutted” to learn her ward would soon be disestablished. The Takitimu Māori Ward, representing about 10,000 voters, will now serve its final term after a narrow 11,759–10,443 vote to remove it.
Across the country, results showed wide variation. Some of the least Māori regions, such as Wellington City, where only about 11 percent of residents identify as Māori, voted overwhelmingly to keep their Māori ward. Meanwhile, Whangārei, where more than a third of the population is Māori, voted to scrap its Māori representation altogether.
Marlborough councillor Allanah Burgess, who became the district’s first Māori ward representative in 2022, also lost her seat after voters there opted to remove the ward. She acknowledged that older, Pākehā voters were more likely to turn out and decide the result, saying, “Honestly, I don’t know if Māori will be elected to this council again.”
The contradictions reflect a growing divide between urban and regional attitudes toward identity-based politics. While smaller, more Māori regions voted to restore colour-blind representation, Wellington, with one of the country’s smallest Māori populations, voted to keep its Māori ward, underscoring how symbolic politics often run strongest where the stakes are smallest.
