October 17, 2013
Work needed to make councils relevant
A new member of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council says he wants to make the council's work relevant to Maori.
Awanui Black won the Mauao Maori ward that had been held by Raewyn Bennett.
He says local and regional government has a greater impact on Maori than national politics.
But he says the low turnout by Maori indicates that message isn't getting through.
"It’s probably a sign of our people voting with their feet because of the political machinations and they system and all that sort of stuff doesn’t appear to be relevant to a lot of our people who are struggling with everyday sorts of issues, so one of the challenges ahead of me and other Maori (councillors) is to give our people confidence their voices are being heard, that we are doing our best to achieve the priorities as our people see them," Mr Black says.
He says there should be better Maori turnout next election if the process seems relevant to them.
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