Taranaki iwi representatives gain voting rights on civil defence decisions
Sunday, 6 December 2020
Three Taranaki iwi representatives will be invited for the first time to participate in regional civil defence management meetings from 2021 onwards.
The decision, after a long debate at the Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) civil defence emergency management (CDEM) joint committee meeting on Thursday, was heralded as a “forward thinking” move, which would be looked on with interest by the rest of New Zealand.
The committee, chaired by regional councillor Tom Cloke, included the mayors and chief executives from the three district councils and Taranaki Civil Defence Emergency Management regional manager Craig Campbell-Smart.
The iwi members will be chosen to represent each of the three waka confederations, Aotea, Tokomaru and Kurahaupō, linked to the region’s eight iwi.
The three iwi representatives will have voting rights at CDEM co-ordinating executive group meetings, but not at CDEM joint committee meetings, which would require a law change by central government.
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However, the joint committee agreed to lobby central government to change the law to allow voting rights for iwi representatives.
A recommendation to allow payment for the three representatives to attend the meetings was put aside for later discussion as none of the current committee members were paid.
New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom and South Taranaki mayor Phil Nixon agreed iwi representation was necessary around the committee table.
There is a lot of interest at the moment in how iwi can be appropriately represented in civil defence management, Nixon said.
Māori are more vulnerable than others and have been significantly affected in civil defence emergencies, Holdom said.
The three representatives would bring different perspectives to meetings, as well as high level of capability and connectedness, and be able to offer infrastructure, such as marae, needed in an emergency, Holdom said.