{"id":73242,"date":"2025-10-12T05:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73242\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T05:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T05:00:08","slug":"far-north-maori-ward-prevails-after-thumbs-up-from-11000-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73242\/","title":{"rendered":"Far North M\u0101ori ward prevails after thumbs up from 11,000 people"},"content":{"rendered":"

That had also been the case nationally with the other 16 surviving M\u0101ori electoral areas.<\/p>\n

Tepania said it was of note that the biggest numbers among those voting to keep the Far North electoral area were general ward voters.<\/p>\n

\"FarFar North Kahika\/Mayor Moko Tepania is delighted the local M\u0101ori ward is staying. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Traditionally, M\u0101ori ward polling works against these electoral areas.<\/p>\n

FNDC voters have in the past been polled on bringing in a M\u0101ori ward and rejected doing so.<\/p>\n

Tepania said as a result, he had not been sure about which way the Far North District would vote on the issue at the elections.<\/p>\n

He looked forward to having the M\u0101ori ward in place for continuing positive outcomes for the Far North.<\/p>\n

The Ng\u0101 Tai o Tokerau M\u0101ori Ward\u2019s four councillors are returning politicians, Awanui\u2019s Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, T\u0101mati R\u0101kena and newcomers Chicky Rudkin of Kaikohe and Waimate North\u2019s Arohanui Allen.<\/p>\n

Voting was very close in binding polls across Northland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei District Council<\/a> (WDC) is now one of 25 councils nationally to remove its M\u0101ori ward.<\/p>\n

Progress results showed 23,702 electors had their say on the ward\u2019s future, with a 57% majority voting to get rid of it.<\/p>\n

That means the Whang\u0101rei District M\u0101ori Ward will be around for the 2025-2028 political term but will then disappear.<\/p>\n

Inaugural WDC M\u0101ori ward incumbents Deb Nathan and Phoenix Ruka have been re-elected to the ward\u2019s two seats for this three-year term.<\/p>\n

It will be 2031 before any voting can happen on whether or not to have a WDC M\u0101ori ward again.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Saturday\u2019s progress results showed more than 51,000 people across the region voted on the future of Northland Regional Council<\/a>\u2019s (NRC) Te Raki M\u0101ori Constituency.<\/p>\n

A 52% majority or 26,676 people voted to get rid of the electoral area in Northland\u2019s closest poll margin.<\/p>\n

This also means the constituency will be around for the 2025-2028 political term but will then disappear.<\/p>\n

Newcomers Pita Tipene and Arama Morunga will represent the constituency\u2019s two seats after incumbents Peter-Lucas Jones and Tui Shortland lost out in the election race.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kaipara District Council\u2019s Te Moananui o Kaipara M\u0101ori Ward has disappeared at this year\u2019s local elections after the council decided to abolish it in 2024.<\/p>\n

This means its 18,327 voters could not have a say in a binding poll on its future at the local elections.<\/p>\n

However, Kaipara<\/a> voters were able to take part in the NRC M\u0101ori constituency poll.<\/p>\n

Tepania said it was good to see Kaipara voters were able to have their chance to take part in polling through the regional council.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s progress results mark the end of a significant moment in New Zealand\u2019s political history \u2013 with Northland the first region in New Zealand where all its councils decided to bring in M\u0101ori electoral areas for the 2022 local elections.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That had also been the case nationally with the other 16 surviving M\u0101ori electoral areas. Tepania said it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[57589,46871,74,7800,803,7797,528,71,3273,42899,440,130,2720,111,43,139,529,24926,22258,69,5202,384,18154,57587,131,165,57588,57590,810,19791,1533],"class_list":["post-73242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-57589","tag-46871","tag-after","tag-body","tag-continue","tag-elections","tag-far","tag-from","tag-future","tag-landscape","tag-local","tag-more","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-northlands","tag-norths","tag-nz","tag-part","tag-people","tag-political","tag-prevails","tag-than","tag-their","tag-thumbs","tag-tokerau","tag-up","tag-ward","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73242","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=73242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}