October 10, 2022
Tough ask for Māori councilors
A Māori political scientist says the 2022 local body elections were good for Māori.
Dr Lara Greaves from the University of Auckland says 35 councils had Maori ward seats on offer, which means there are now 66 more Māori around the table than last election.
“People like Hilda Halkyard-Harawira in the north though have been playing it down though, saying its still quite hard for us as Māori going in to council, it’s a very pakeha structure in how to get stuff done. And then you’ve got some tricky situations with people like Tania Tapsell in Rotorua still to figure out what forms their wards are going to take because that is still quite controversial, and she’s more right-leaning, so that is going to be a tricky discourse for her to manage. It’s been a mixed bag but I think a reasonably good election for Maori,” she says.
Dr Greaves says while Labour backed candidates Efeso Collins in Auckland and Paul Eagle in Wellington lost, this could be because they ran poor campaigns rather than being an anti-government vote.