Thread by @farmgeek

My submission on this bill is in the following thread. Please feel free to use any of it you find useful, and a huge thank you to everyone who commented with ideas.

Please make your submission *before Wednesday*

https://twitter.com/farmgeek/status/1793835901757641120

1. The Bill as proposed is a flagrant breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi:

The complete and utter lack of consultation with Māori roopu on the Bill, breaches partnership and Article 2 as it takes away a mechanism which safeguards democratic participation for Māori in local councils.

2. When mana whenua have input to local bodies, particularly re resource management, it leads to better decision making and better outcomes for everyone. This Bill would facilitate a loss of valuable mātauranga.

3. Singling out Māori wards is inequitable with regard to other wards. No other wards are treated in this way. Councils can already establish rural wards for example, and these would not be subject to referendums, only Māori wards.

Any argument for protecting the status of other minority wards would apply with equal force to Māori wards.

4. Forcing councils to undertake referendums to maintain Māori wards will inevitably be divisive and polarising, and simply provide a vehicle for those who wish to stoke racist rhetoric.

5. Many Councils have established Māori wards under the previous legislation which did not require a referendum. This Bill would require them to run costly referendums on wards that are already in place.

I would also like to add that allowing just four working days for submissions on a bill that has no intrinsic need for urgency is an affront to democracy.

I do not support this bill.