New Plymouth Council says no to Maori representation

Maori representation on New Plymouth District Council subcommittees has been voted down tonight in a two hour long meeting at the New Plymouth District Council chambers.

Five councillors voted in favour of the purposal, seven voted against. 

Mayor Andrew Judd, deputy mayor Heather Dodunski and councillors Gordon Brown, Howie Tamati and Marie Pearce voted in favour of iwi representatives being appointed and given full voting rights on the policy, monitoring and regulatory committees.

Councillors Keith Allum, Murray Chong, Shaun Biesiek, Grant Coward, John McLeod, Richard Jordan and Colin Johnston voted against the proposal.

Councillors Richard Handley, Len Houwers and Craig McFarlane did not vote as they were absent.

When the vote was counted up and the Mayor confirmed Iwi will not have representation on influential council committees all members of the public in the chambers stood and left yelling out "shame on you" to numerous councillors who voted against the purposal. 

New Plymouth Youth In Politics Michael Riley said "It would have been good to hear what the three councillors had to say on the topic. Numerous people have told me two of the three councillors away would have most definitely supported the purposal." 

Gordon Burnside comments to Youth In Politics "Councillors are not elected to follow the whims of their noisiest uninformed ratepayers, they are elected to take the hard decisions, those which they, with their greater knowledge of the situation, are best for the district." 

Taranaki's local newspaper will have coverage from the meeting in tommorows paper, but for now if you want to watch the two hour meeting online go to this link here. 

What do you think of the meeting? Was it fair? Let us know on New Plymouth Youth In Politics on Facebook.