Don Brash
Hobson’s Pledge
A deeply alarming precedent within our democracy has just been set in the Far North, and it is something every New Zealander should know about.
Late last week, an elected councillor was removed from a council committee by a majority of her peers because they didn’t like her views, her tough questioning, and her challenges that might upset local iwi.
Davina Smolders is an elected councillor on the Far North District Council. She has been fearlessly outspoken about how the council operates as well as the aggressive intrusion of Māori activism within the council.
You may recall she was the councillor who called out the number of unelected iwi sitting on council committees, outnumbering the actual elected councillors. Davina also blew the whistle on the council racing to sign up Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements, which she said were being done in secret.
On Thursday last week, the council met and removed her from its Māori strategic partnerships committee. Davina was voted off the committee by a vote of 7-3.
An elected councillor doing the job you voted for her to do was officially removed from her committee role.
Her crime? Asking hard questions about expenditure, voting against committee recommendations, and refusing to give in to iwi activism.
Imagine being elected by your community to keep local government honest, only to be stripped of your duties the moment you ask where the money is going.
Imagine also being elected by the same community to represent everyone as best you can, yet effectively being told that you can only be part of a committee so long as you only focus on giving iwi what they want.
Davina is now paying the price for doing her job.
The council didn't just push her out of the committee she was on, they also rigged the process to ensure she couldn’t properly defend herself.
This includes:
1. Davina was ambushed without process: Councillors seeking to rid her from the committee used a complaint dating back to July as justification. She was not informed of the complaint until she saw the agenda for Thursday’s meeting, let alone given a full right of reply under any proper code of conduct process.
2. She was literally silenced: As Davina began to ask how questioning spending or voting as she chooses is ‘misconduct’, she faced multiple interruptions from other councillors moving points of order to silence her defence for ‘irrelevancy’. Instead of allowing Davina to challenge the faulty process, the committee upheld the points of order.
3. Double standards: According to other councillors, because the committee prioritises relationships with Māori, only words and actions that indulge iwi interests are allowed. Supposedly, for Davina or anyone to hold dissenting views or post updates on social media about what is happening in the council is both ‘misleading’ and ‘distracting’.
4. No clear rules: Another councillor who voted against her acknowledged there is no clear policy threshold for removing an elected member from a committee. Even as they sacked her from this council committee, the council knows they have just set a dangerous precedent for any other committee and councillor. Don’t agree with the activism of the likes of this Māori strategic partnerships committee and you’ll be removed as Davina was.
This is not a democratic council. It’s a kangaroo court where the verdict was decided before it even begins.
When local councils decide that keeping smooth relationships with activist groups matters more than democratic accountability, the system is broken. They called her public updates ‘misinformation’ simply because she told ratepayers what was really happening behind closed doors.
This article was originally published by Hobson’s Pledge.
