Māori wards and constituencies

Māori wards and constituencies for urban, district, and regional councils in New Zealand are electoral areas where local constituents registered on the Māori parliamentary electoral roll vote for candidates. Like Māori electorates within the New Zealand Parliament, the purpose of Māori wards and constituencies is to ensure that Māori are represented in local government decision making.

Māori wards and constituencies were first introduced by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in 2001. Prior to 2021, a local referendum was required to introduce Māori wards limiting adoption. Consequently, attempts to introduce Māori wards and constituencies were defeated at several polls in New Plymouth, Palmerston North, the Western Bay of Plenty, Whakatāne, Manawatu, and Kaikōura.

In late February 2021, the Sixth Labour Government passed the Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2021, which eliminated the poll provision for establishing Māori wards and constituencies. Consequently, by the 2022 local elections, six of the eleven regional councils (54.5%) had adopted Māori constituencies and 29 of the 67 territorial authorities (43.3%) had Māori wards.

In late November 2023, the Sixth National Government pledged to "restore the right of local referendum on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards." On 30 July 2024, Parliament passed a bill that reinstated the previous provisions requiring local referendums on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards. Councils that had already established a Māori ward without a referendum were required to hold a binding poll alongside the 2025 local elections or to disestablish them. The final results of the referendums were 24 councils voted to remove them and 18 councils voted to keep them.