![\"Bridge\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JTFF04_David_Seymour_10_02_26_1_jpg.jpeg\")
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\nDavid Seymour says the party first raised this issue in September last year.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
The ACT Party would ban unelected appointees on local council committees from having voting rights within 100 days if elected, leader David Seymour says.<\/p>\n
“If you’re voting on council decisions, you should be accountable to the people paying the bills. That means facing free and frequent elections,” he has told a town hall meeting in New Plymouth.<\/p>\n
The party this week lodged a member’s bill under the name of MP Cameron Luxton, who had campaigned since 2025 on amending the law to ban unelected appointees on council committees from having voting rights.<\/p>\n
With his amendment so far not prioritised by coalition partners National and New Zealand First, Seymour said if the member’s bill was not drawn, the party would make it an election commitment to pass it within 100 days.<\/p>\n
“When we first raised this issue in September last year, the Local Government Minister told us he had other priorities. But ACT says democracy is fundamental and urgent,” Seymour said.<\/p>\n
The issue has come to a head in the Far North, where ACT-aligned councillor Davina Smolders has been at odds with the mayor<\/a> Moko Tepania over having iwi representatives on the council’s Te Kuaka M\u0101ori Strategic Relationships Committee.<\/p>\n The council voted on Wednesday morning to expand the committee to include two representatives of the Northland iwi chairs forum and eight hap\u016b representatives, alongside six elected councillors including Smolders.<\/p>\n She spoke on Duncan Garner’s podcast last week, where the host said he believed the proposed committee makeup was undemocratic and illegal – though Tepania later confirmed it was within the law.<\/p>\n Tepania said the furore had taken him by surprise, given M\u0101ori liaison committees were nothing new.<\/p>\n He told LDR it was “a mechanism that allows us to meet our statutory obligations under the Local Government Act, which is to ensure that we include M\u0101ori participation in our decision-making”.<\/p>\n More than 100 people gathered<\/a> outside the council chambers ahead of the vote, many carrying flags and home-made banners in a show of support for Tepania.<\/p>\n ACT had claimed in its Monday newsletter the council was “stacking its various committees with iwi representatives who can vote, diluting the power of those elected and creating a new political order”.<\/p>\n “ACT Local Councillor Davina Smolders is a New Zealand hero. She has stood alone asking hard questions of the Far North District Council, and so far got the Minister for Local Government to ‘engage’ with the Council (with a little help from ACT).”<\/p>\n Smoulders previously faced council code of conduct proceedings after she publicly congratulated Tepania, claiming he had been selected as the Labour Party’s candidate for Northland in the upcoming general election.<\/p>\n Tepania later confirmed he would be staying on as mayor<\/a>, and would not be standing as an MP. He is expected not to seek re-election<\/a> as mayor in 2028.<\/p>\n