Submissions have officially closed on Auckland Council's plan to establish Māori wards for the 2025 local body elections - and support for them was low, say council officials.
Just shy of 10,000 people (9997) submitted their thoughts.
They had one option of two elected Māori positions, or another option of two elected Māori seats plus one mana whenua-appointed position.
All roles, designed to be proportionate to Māori population, would sit on the council's governing body with the supercity's 20 other councillors.
Rose Leonard, governance services manager at Auckland Council, told Newshub at a high level most submitters seemed to not want Māori seats.
"The views are really varied about why."
The Mayor and councillors need to take into account the public's views before they make decisions, Leonard said.
"But ultimately they can decide to have Māori seats, even if the majority of submissions are against it or vice versa."
The governing body had previously agreed in-principle to Māori seats on council, once the restriction on the number of councillors was removed.
Alf Filipaina, an Auckland councillor of more than 20 years, has high hopes Māori wards will be established.
He also said the feedback showed relatively low support for them.
"I would really like to see this before I leave and for me it would work well using the parliamentary model as the legislation is already in place."
Auckland has three Māori councillors currently elected from general wards.
"In any election though that could change," said Leonard.
"Bringing a dedicated te ao Māori view to the governing body in Auckland is what many Māori have been asking for and is in line with parliamentary Māori seats," she said.
Auckland is home to 19 iwi or hapū, and has the largest Māori population in Aotearoa, with more than 200,000 people.
And 2018 data shows Māori in the supercity are 24.9 years old on average, much younger than other Aucklanders at 34.7 years on average.
The local boards of Māngere-Ōtāhuhu and Ōtara-Papatoetoe have the highest concentration of Māori of any Auckland constituency.
Leonard told Newshub not all Māori agree Māori wards are the way forward though.
To some that's because Auckland Council set up an Independent Māori Statutory Board (IMSB) when the supercity was formed.
Its nine members promote issues of significance to Māori to the council.
Two members vote on every council committee that deals with natural and physical resources.
"But they are not part of the governing body, who make the most important decisions for Auckland," Leonard said.
Lee Short, chair of Democracy Action, told Newshub the group is opposed to Māori wards.
He said the IMSB is "unelected and accountable to no-one."
"It destroys the proportionality of democracy. There's more influence by them that they should really have. They are racist."
"We don't like the divisive speech they bring about."
Short said the council should halt its decisions until the next local body elections in 2025.
Auckland Council proposed two models: the parliamentary model (two elected members only), and the Royal Commission (two elected and one appointed members).
The Parliamentary model doesn't require a law change but the Royal Commission model does.
The council also proposed a third bespoke option which would need more work.
The Local Electoral Act (2001) allowed the creation of Māori wards, but communities who rallied 5 percent of people to oppose them could block them from being formed.
That happened 21 out of 24 times councils tried it so the Labour Party amended the Local Electoral Act in 2021 to stop that happening.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council was the first to introduce them.
The closure of submissions comes after ACT, New Zealand First, and National all pledged to scrap Māori wards for councils if elected to government.
"Labour has been unapologetically undemocratic about local Māori representation," ACT leader David Seymour told Newshub in August.
NZ First leader Winston Peters told Newshub he'd ruled out working with Labour in Government "because of their racist separatist policies".
National leader Christopher Luxon reaffirmed in August his party's position was to do the same, saying "we have a democracy where it's one person, one vote. So we've opposed that through the course of the last Parliament."
Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, the Rotorua candidate for Te Pāti Māori, told Newshub establishing Māori wards is up to councils and ratepayers, not Government.
"Opposition leaders believe they know what's good for Māori. Well they don't."
"As our rangatahi say, 'get on board or move out of the way'."
About half of all councils now have Māori wards yet "the sky hasn't fallen down," Raukawa-Tait said.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said in August opposition parties were trying to divide the nation.
"The National, ACT, New Zealand First coalition of cuts, chaos and confusion hold a compilation of views I think would alienate large sections of our society. Not just economically, but to their sense of belonging too."
Māori development spokesperson for the Greens Teanau Tuiono said his party supports kaupapa that welcome Māori to the decision-making table.
"Ensuring there are Māori voices and representation in local government is good for our democracy and in line with Te Tiriti o Waitangi aspiration," he said.
Leonard told Newshub the governing body will decide on or after October 26 whether to have Māori seats or not.
If so, they would be established in time for the 2025 council elections, but if not, nothing will happen for another few years
Submissions closed earlier today, Sunday 24 September.
