{"id":530784,"date":"2026-07-17T14:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/530784\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T14:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:28:15","slug":"auckland-councillors-boycott-manurewa-board-over-marshal-ahluwalia-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/530784\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland councillors boycott Manurewa board over Marshal Ahluwalia return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahluwalia did not respond to the Herald\u2019s request for comment on Friday.<\/p>\n

As councillors, Newman and Winiata do not have voting rights on the board but do have speaking rights. <\/p>\n

Newman said they often provide support to the members, but this would cease while Ahluwalia remains. <\/p>\n

Newman and Winiata said Ahluwalia had once \u201cparaded\u201d about Manurewa with ambitions of becoming \u201ca Minister of the Crown\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Manurewa-PapakuraManurewa-Papakura ward councillors Daniel Newman (left) and Matt Winiata (right) say they have lost confidence in Marshal Ahluwalia<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lost confidence in Mr Ahluwalia, and we are dismayed that he has resumed his seat and was today participating in decision-making around the Manurewa Local Board table,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

The councillors believed Ahluwalia\u2019s presence was undermining the board at a critical time as it consulted the community on its local board plan and prepared to take on additional responsibilities.<\/p>\n

They also criticised Ahluwalia for returning to the board without publicly addressing the allegations.<\/p>\n

\" Allegations relating to Manurewa Local Board member Marshal Ahluwalia have been referred to the Serious Fraud Office<\/p>\n

Speaking last month, Lou-Ann Ballantyne, Auckland Council\u2019s governance and engagement general manager, said the council had been made aware of allegations regarding a local board member and referred them to the SFO.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe member requested a leave of absence, which was granted by the Manurewa Local Board until 22 June 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Serious Fraud Office confirmed it was currently evaluating a complaint received<\/a> from Auckland Council regarding a local board member.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo further information can be provided at this stage, including details regarding the complaint and whether an investigation has commenced or will commence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police said they had received a report relating to an allegation of fraud in October.<\/p>\n

They made inquiries but ultimately found insufficient evidence to prove that the incident constituted a criminal offence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complainant has since been advised, and the matter will be filed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A letter dated May 11 was sent by Ahluwalia to Manurewa Local Board chairwoman Heather Andrew requesting a leave of absence.<\/p>\n

It cited \u201cpersonal reasons\u201d and thanked Andrew for her \u201cunderstanding and support\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rachel Maher is the education correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. She also covers a variety of other topics such as Auckland issues, crime and local government. She started at the Herald as a breaking news journalist in 2022, before joining the Auckland team this year. <\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahluwalia did not respond to the Herald\u2019s request for comment on Friday. As councillors, Newman and Winiata do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[59327,104436,26676,534,51,2372,17099,26519,5504,3561,71,12514,440,80177,262010,79817,1329,111,43,139,69,6270,1523,38538,10715,1527,1238,8229,6123,1533],"class_list":["post-530784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-absence","tag-ahluwalia","tag-allegations","tag-amid","tag-auckland","tag-board","tag-boycott","tag-councillors","tag-following","tag-fraud","tag-from","tag-leave","tag-local","tag-manurewa","tag-marshal","tag-meetings","tag-member","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-office","tag-over","tag-referred","tag-remains","tag-return","tag-serious","tag-they","tag-while","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}