■ Well, that didn’t age well. The ink was barely dry on my first column introducing myself as your new Kōhi Māori ward councillor when the Government announced reforms that would get rid of elected councillors like me and replace them with people of their choosing – not a great outcome for democracy, writes Mawera Karetai.

You would have seen the article in the Beacon last week about the Coalition Government’s reform package, which proposes to dissolve regional council governance and services in their current form and transfer their powers to a small

number of appointed commissioners or Combined Territories Boards.

There are also some suggestions that local MPs might be appointed to control regional councils.

Regardless of who is put in charge, this would limit local voters’ ability to choose who makes decisions about rivers, coasts, climate adaptation, public transport and biosecurity in our rohe.

One thing I hear from people in our community all the time, is that the skills we look for in our mayor or an MP, are not the same skills we look for in our regional council representatives, and, rightly so – the roles of each council are so different from each other.

The direction of travel under this proposed new model is away from locally determined representation and toward central direction and appointments.

This is alarming, undemocratic, and your vote will be cancelled.

That means the mandate you gave me and my colleagues as our voters would be cut short not by an election, but by legislation.

Instead of answering to you at the next pōti, the new governance will likely answer primarily to Wellington, even as they decide on matters that affect our whenua, our moana and our communities every day.

Removing elected councils breaks the basic democratic promise that the people most affected by decisions should be able to choose the decision makers.

It also weakens the growing network of councils who are already working on the collaborative model that the Government is demanding – this is the case with Toi Moana – our Bay of Plenty Regional Council, working with our local councils.

No one from the Government came to talk to us before they made this decision, and so I am not sure what information they have used to make their new proposed reforms. It is rushed and scary.

So, where to from here?

Nothing in these reforms stops communities from organising, speaking up and insisting that any future structure honours both local democracy and representation.

Submissions, public meetings, legal challenges and collective advocacy all matter, especially from those whose voices are usually sidelined.

In the meantime, while this council and this Kōhi seat exist, my job is unchanged: to show up, to champion our natural environment, to vote in line with our rohe’s values, and to keep you informed about what is happening in conversations you wanted me to be part of.

If you are angry, worried, or just curious, that is a good place to start – because whatever Wellington decides for us, the real power of democracy will always depend on whether people like you and I choose to use our voice.

Let’s make sure all decisions that are made, are made with us and by us, not made for us.

I encourage you to read through the proposals and complete the questionnaire here: https://www.dia.govt.nz/simplifying-local-government