Auckland Council has earmarked $60 million to improve the condition of 32 marae throughout the super city.

The pūtea comes alongside a goal to make marae more self-sustainable through improving water supplies and even putting solar power on some marae.

Councillor Penny Hulse says her experience with the way the old Waitākere City Council interacted with Hoani Waititi Marae showed her the value of a marae infrastructure programme, but it took time to embed that thinking in the new council.

"This is about supporting our marae to be quite rightly those centre of community places, to help them, look after practical stuff like their buildings and their parking areas and everything that goes to keeping a marae functional," she says.

Cr Hulse says the timing of the announcement has nothing to do with the election – and it could be unpopular in some quarters.

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