Kaipara: Four wards or backwards?

 

BY JULIA WADE

Following a lengthy consultation process starting in April 2018, the prospect of Kaipara’s ward boundaries being redefined came closer to conclusion at a recent public ‘representation review’ held at the Mangawhai Club on March 14. 

Kaipara District Council (KDC) is proposing to realign the areas existing three wards – Otamatea, Dargaville, and West Coast/Central – by forming a new Kaiwaka/Mangawhai ward, expanding Otamatea boundaries and reducing West Coast/Central, with each ward represented by two councillors. Adopted as the final proposal at a special council meeting in October 2018, the reshuffle intends to provide more representation for south-eastern communities and distribute representation of councillors and their workload more fairly and equally. 

The proposal is in accordance with the Local Electoral Act 2001 where all New Zealand councils are required to review their districts representation arrangements every six years for the triennial elections in 2019 and 2022.

Four appeals against the proposal were lodged with the Local Government Commission (LGC), who hold a ‘quasi-judicial role’ to decide the best representation arrangement for local authorities, the recent meeting allowing council and appellants a chance to voice their perspectives, arguments and concerns to the LGC commissioners.

Kaipara growing
In opening KDC mayor, Dr Jason Smith, gave a context of the district and review of the community consultation process since the proposals inception. Council were restricted to using available population data from the 2013 census and could not include any future growth or the non-permanent population factor he says, the proposal is about ‘where the communities are at today’. 

“Kaipara is the fastest growing district in the North Island with most of the growth happening in Otamatea… a population of around 23,000 people – 4200 in Dargaville, 3700 in Mangawhai and the balance spread quite liberally across the 94km area in farms and rural zones,” he says. “Currently Otamatea sits over the permitted population threshold… so we are having to make change here.” 

One of the challenges regarding Otamatea is the vast geographical distance of communities with small populations and ‘quite discrete communities of interest’. 

“We’re very aware of the high level situations the councillors are dealing with across the Otamatea district with western and eastern communities such as Tinopai and Mangawhai,” he says. ”Heavy consideration was given to not group together communities of interest that share few commonalties.”

Boundary options
Alternative boundary options showing only two wards had also previously been considered however Smith says these would have ‘crystalised the east/west divide’, a division council do not want to promote. 

“The final proposal with the four ward structure addresses this while maintaining communities of interest,” he says. “Eight councillors with measurable, equal workload, and the new Kaiwaka/Mangawhai ward providing more representation. Two wards is taking a block-colour view of Kaipara rather than a nuanced, pixelated view of the way our communities work.”

Following the initial public consultation meeting in July last year, over 80 submissions were received in regards to the proposal, with the majority in opposition. While submitters in support believed the new ward will bring fairer representation to all areas especially Kaiwaka/Mangawhai, those against saw the new division as ‘strongly weighted’ towards the west with not enough representation for the ‘only actively  growing areas of Kaipara’.

Submitters opposed also stated the new ward would ‘drive a wedge’ between Otamatea communities which have shared a long history.  

Three appellants, all from Otamatea, spoke at the meeting with one person declaring that the east/west divide is already 'alive and well’.

‘We pay a third of the rates… they [western wards] have had five councillors and we have only had three and ours have not sometimes even lived in this area’.

The appellant also did not believe the new ward would alter representation as the ongoing growth in the east will make the proposal ‘obsolete’. 

The effect on splitting up the ‘long established community’ of Otamatea was voiced, with residents identifying with the history of the area and sense of belonging as well as sharing facilities such as schools, recreational, cultural and retail outlets. Linking Ruawai in with Otamatea, one appellant says ‘creates a further disconnect as the town has a greater affinity with Dargaville’. 

Trust issues 
Staying with the existing wards but adding another councillor to Otamatea, and having a two ward system with four councillors representing each ward was supported, ‘east/west wards will create balance and encourage cooperation’. 

‘This proposal addresses all of the concerns, it does not divide established communities of interest or conflate communities with limited commonality, it provides for better effective representation in the current Otamatea ward without providing poorer effective representation in the West Coast/Central ward, and provides good margins for population changes in the wards that are minimal under the thresholds for fair representation in the Initial Proposal’. 

Kaipara’s recent painful history in regards to fair governance was also broached with one appellant stating ‘the issue of not adhering to due process has been a problem in Kaipara for over a decade, we’ve been there before and the legacy of that mistreatment from the office makes for a community which is still trying to figure out where it’s loyalties lie’.   

One appellant stated that the representation arrangement should be reviewed once population statistics are updated, ‘we’ll continue to see massive growth in the east and it will be really important to go back to the drawing board in three years time’. 

When asked by a commissioner that if the population ‘should grow expedientially’, would council wait another six years before embarking on another representation arrangement, the mayor replied while he would ‘absolutely welcome the opportunity to have good data’, the councils  preference would be to not let the situation go for another six years.   

 For more details on the four wards proposal and submitters comments, visit kaipara.govt.nz, representation review. 

Council says the final proposal of the four ward structure addresses the previous east/west divide while maintaining communities of interest, gives better representation, and more equal workload for councillors. - GRAPHIC/Supplied

“Two wards is taking a block-colour view of Kaipara rather than a nuanced, pixelated view of the way our communities work.”

- Dr Jason Smith, Kapiara District mayor