A push for Maori representation on the proposed Auckland super city started with a recommendation by the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance that two Maori members should be elected to the Auckland Council by voters who are on the parliamentary Maori Electoral Roll, and that there should be a “mana whenua” forum, the members of which will be appointed by Maori from the district of the Auckland Council.
The provision of elected Maori members of the council analogous to the Maori seat representation in parliament was dropped.
Race Relations Commissioner Joris De Bres called for dedicated Maori seats in March 2010, in a statement releasing the Human Rights Commission annual review of race relations.
The Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Act 2009 set up the nine-member statutory board that must appoint a maximum of two persons to sit on each of the Auckland Council's committees that deal with the management and stewardship of natural and physical resources
The Maori statutory board is appointed by the Maori Affairs Department but paid for by Auckland ratepayers.
Having un-elected representation of Maori on committees voting on transport or infrastructure, as well as the fact that the advisory board requested (and initially received) a $3.4-million yearly budget, sparked significant criticism, as did a Maori Statutory Board $295-million wish list for the draft 10-year plan in 2011, and the modified version in 2012.
Just 157,500 Maori lived in the Auckland area in 2012, mostly in Manurewa-Papakura, and 85.5 percent belonged to non-Auckland tribes. The total population of Auckland was one million.
The Auckland Maori Statutory Board must be disestablished.