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Download AudioThe Maori committee of Local Government New Zealand, Te Maruata, has hit out at what it calls blatant race-baiting and scare-mongering over co-governance.
More than a hundred Maori, most of them new to the business of local government, are in Wellington for the Te Maruata conference – aimed at helping them get to grips with their responsibilities.
Te Maruata co-chair and Taranaki regional councillor Bonita Bigham says many of them have raised what they see as a manufactured controversy.
“You know there’s a lot of race-baiting and scare-mongering and things like that going on. But I think those voices that are the noisest, are a minority, and that they’re just looking for people to scare into thinking the same way they are – as opposed to what I really, fervently hope are the vast majority who can see through this, and understand the benefits of co-governance as opposed to seeing it as a threat,” she says.
Ms Bigham, says so much has changed now that 67 rather than just 3 councils have elected Maori members, thanks to the current Government’s changes to the Local Government Electoral Act.
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