Ashburton may not have a Māori ward, but that didn’t stop its councillors weighing in on the national debate.

Councils voted by an overwhelming majority to push back against new Government Māori ward polling rules at the closed doors annual meeting at the Local Government NZ conference in Wellington this week.

More than 80% of the councils at the meeting backed a push from Palmerston North City Council against new legislation that forces councils to hold a public poll at the next local election if they wish to keep or bring in a Māori ward.

Earlier in the week, the Ashburton District councillors indicated they didn’t support it.

The council did not consider adding a Māori ward during its representation review. That's because it is one of a dozen councils that does not have a sufficient Māori electoral population, less than 5% of the general voting population, to qualify for a ward.

New legislation requires councils that established Māori wards without a referendum to now decide whether to keep their ward - by holding a binding poll at the 2025 local body elections or get rid of it.

When the remit was discussed at the Ashburton District Council meeting on Tuesday, the majority of the councillors voted not to support the Māori ward referendum remit.

Councillor Richard Wilson said it should be "one person one vote”.

"I don’t support picking our democracy by race.

"Everybody in this room represents everybody in the district regardless of race, creed, social background, everything.”

Councillor Tony Todd said the Government is allowing communities to have a say on Māori wards.

"It was during the last government, where Minister [Nanaia] Mahuta changed the rules and in my mind, she was the one who overreached and brought it on to councils only to make the decision.

"It should be a community decision whether we have Māori wards or not.”

A separate remit pushed for the entrenchment of Māori wards, which Ashburton’s councillors unanimously didn’t support, that only received 40% support at LGNZ.

Meanwhile, Ashburton's own push for a graduated driver licensing system, which would provide greater testing capacity in key locations throughout New Zealand, was supported.

Councils also backed stronger laws to allow them to take action on unoccupied buildings plaguing many cities and towns in New Zealand, the availability of statistics, community service cards, and new funding and financing tools.

By Jonathan Leask