12:32 PM |
NZ councils may be not too diverse, but minorities have a growing role
Less than two months to go until the New Zealand local body elections, yet already some Asia-Pacific aspiring candidates are dubious about how reflective of the community new councils will be.
Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Shannon Gillies.
Decisions being made about the development of New Zealand cities or towns are not reflective of who makes up your neighbourhood, say some aspiring local body politicians and community advocates.
Voters across the country will cast postal votes for council elections by October 9 but their choices are limited to mostly "middle-aged white males".
Local government does not match the New Zealand population, according to the head of the Local Government New Zealand movement and four Asian-Pacific politicians.
Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule said councils were not representative.
"As a percentage of population, Pacific Islanders are under-represented in council and Asians on the larger councils are underrepresented as well."
Dunedin mayor Peter Chin said councils have never reflected New Zealand.
"Local government New Zealand is made up predominantly of middle-aged white males."
Women can also join the list of underrepresented minorities, he said.
No diversity
Ex-Carterton mayor and parliamentarian Georgina Beyer said councils do not show racial diversity.
Manukau City councillor Efu Koka agreed and Hastings District councillor Henare O'Keefe said that all ethnicities need to be more proactive in getting representation on councils.
Lawrence Yule believed the current council looks came down to historical reasons.
"The National government is still seen as pretty Anglo-Saxon. I think as a country we're taking a while to recognise cultural diversity. Māori and Pacific communities haven't shown a huge interest that I'm aware of running local councils," he said. "I think it's going to change."
Chin predicted change to happen over the next 10 to 20 years, stating he was just one of the first to make it into public office.
Chin was a Chinese-New Zealander. He has served on council for five terms and in all of his time he has only known of two Chinese councillors and one other Chinese mayor.
Despite the lack of Chinese blood on councils, Chin's decision to run for a position, first as a councillor then as mayor, had nothing to do with being Chinese. He saw it as an extension of his community work he had been involved in.
More visible
Being part of a minority group worked for him, he said. He was more visible than his white counterparts.
"Just being there, you stand out. Sometimes it's to your advantage…but there are plenty of occasions where you want to do your own thing. If you want to misbehave you have to be careful where you misbehave."
When it came to capturing votes he felt what people looked for in their councillors or mayors was not race-based.
"I think people vote or make decisions in terms of voting for people on what they know about them, or their name. It's at the beginning of the alphabet or maybe they lust after them."
Beyer said being Māori did not impact on her decision to get involved with local body politics in Carterton: "There were other factors about me more conservative than Māori. I happened to be Māori and I was a woman."
Beyer was the world's first transsexual mayor and member of Parliament. Her drive to get involved in council came at the introduction of the government's decision at the time to slash benefits.
Slashed budget
In 1991, then Finance Minister Ruth Richardson's budget led to 25 percent of benefits being cut, said Beyer. That was coupled with a freezing works being closed down. This led to a sharp increase of homelessness in Carterton.
The community centre group Beyer was part of got active in trying to resolve the issue and approached the council for help. They asked the council for a powered caravan site at the council owned caravan park to help house those down on their luck.
"They turned us down. The argument was that's not what local government is about. It's a central government issue."
Beyer decided to stand for a position on council but failed to get enough votes. She missed out by 14 votes.
But an elected member of council soon had to stand down and it was expected that Beyer would be given the position as the next highest polling candidate. The council opted for the more expensive option of a by-election.
"They didn't want that queer Māori thing sitting at the table," Beyer said.
Massive majority
She went on to win a seat with a "massive majority" despite the council running two out of five candidates against her: "People looked beyond my colourful self and saw ability there. They saw capability in me and they like calling a spade a spade. I came in with fresh eyes."
Racism was not blatantly obvious. Before she got on council a submission process had been held with the public concerning the placement with a Kohunga Reo. The site was on a "nice" kowhai-lined street.
"I read back through the submissions. I was just outraged at some of the blatant prejudicial kind of things. 'We don't want Māori music played at the night.' 'They'll be busloads coming in and cooking smells'," Beyer recalled.
Only brown face
When I first got elected to council – since I was the only brown face sitting around the table, it was easy to be marginalised. I only had one vote.
What helped break down walls for Beyer was an amendment to the Resource Management Act. Councils had to establish a consultation policy with local Māori.
She was sent away to train up and was used to help establish the policy.
"I took up the challenge to learn. I arrived back and had an idea of where we should go to as a council. We needed to engage the iwi. For the first time in 100 years the council went out to the local marae.
"In a hundred years, can you believe that? I had to sing the waiata. I was able to make a difference, I think," Beyer said.
She was a councillor in 1993 and became Carterton's mayor in 1995. She was shoulder tapped by the Labour Party in 1999 and then entered Parliament: "I spent a total of 14 years in central government and council."
'Needn't be prisoners'
Hastings District councillor Henare O'Keefe said he has never felt that being Māori impacted on his role of being a councillor. In his experience he had never been made to feel he was part of a minority.
"I refuse to dumb down or be made to feel down. If you think you are a minority you'll believe you're a minority and therefore you start behaving as if you are a minority.
"It never enters my mind. I think the word minority should be deleted from your vocabulary. We may well be victims of our past but we needn't be prisoners of it," O'Keefe said.
Manukau's Efu Koka said being classed as a minority did not impact on his role. The Samoan-Niuean says he felt that not all councillors on a local or national scale saw him as an equal.
Being a member of a minority was a driver in his choice to become a councillor: "There are councillors who look down at you because of your ethnic background."
Lawrence Yule said councils are the "easiest" form of politics for someone to get into. If you've got good community leaders in the Asia-Pacific communities, there's no reason they won't get onto councils."
Shannon Gillies is a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.
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