-
Protestors march in a hikoi on Tamaki Drive in Auckland - Source: ONE News -
Related
The contentious issue of Maori representation on Auckland's new city council could be revisited, Prime Minister John Key has indicated.
Speaking on Monday, as thousands of demonstrators marched through Auckland demanding a Maori presence, he said the legislation setting up the single "super council" still had to go through its select committee process.
"At the end of the day, let's just see how it progresses," he said at his post-cabinet press conference.
"I believe the hikoi is a little ahead of itself ... nothing is off the table until the final legislation is drafted."
The bill that sets up the council has passed its first reading in Parliament and has been sent to a special select committee which will hear public submissions on it.
The committee has the power to change the bill before it reports it back to Parliament.
The Government dumped the Royal Commission's proposal to have three Maori seats on a 23-member council, two elected and one appointed by local iwi.
It decided instead to have just 20 councillors, none directly elected by Maori.
Key says at the time the Government considered an advisory board was a better way of engaging with Maori.
"I actually still hold to the view that an advisory board has a lot of merit to it," he says.
"They work well, they work issue-by-issue and you can have an appointed make-up of those boards."
Key says the decision not to follow the commission's recommendation was mainly because it would mean an appointed representative sitting on an otherwise democratically elected council.
Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples told the hikoi crowds in Aotea Square that Key had assured him on Saturday that "the door was still wide open" for Maori representation on the new Auckland council.
"I have put forward a strategy to him for mana whenua seats, and the possibility for involvement of all Maori. And he is going through it very seriously, and how it will affect their overall policy," Dr Sharples said.
"I'm not really concerned about the number of seats. I'm really concerned that mana whenua should be represented."
Afterwards he told NZPA that Maori would develop their own infrastructure within Auckland if they were not given seats on the council.
"We're now a major player in the economy in terms of labour and everything around this city," Sharples said.
"If we can't be included, Maori will turn in on themselves and say okay, we'll develop our own infrastructure and we'll be our own source within this city."
