On 18 October, Auckland Council adopted its final proposal for a review of representation arrangements, which details changes to electoral boundaries, for the 2019 local government elections.
The representation review is required by legislation to ensure community interests are fairly represented on the council.
This means that councillors in each ward should each represent similarly sized populations without too much variation across the whole of Auckland.
Given Auckland’s rapid population growth its boundaries have to change while at the same time not splitting communities.
A Joint Governance Working Party, established by the council, considered public submissions on options for new boundaries and recommend changes based on community feedback.
Effect of changes
These changes may affect which ward some voters belong to for voting purposes at the 2019 elections. Wards are purely electoral boundaries for the electing councillors.
The only changes to wards are to those in the isthmus area.
The communities of Newmarket, Parnell and Grafton will move to the Ōrākei Ward, while communities around Ellerslie and the eastern end of St Johns will become part of the Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Ward.
A small area on the eastern boundary of Maungakiekie-Tāmaki will become part of the Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa Ward (currently called the Albert-Eden-Roskill Ward).
An initial proposal to split the Manukau Ward into two will not go ahead in response to overwhelming public submissions against the split.
Local boards
Local board boundaries cannot be changed. However, some local boards have subdivisions within them which are for the purpose of electing local board members.
The only changes to local board subdivision boundaries will be in the Rodney Local Board area. To recognise that the communities adjacent to the Kaipara Harbour do not share a community of interest with Warkworth, their current subdivision, the northern boundary of the Kumeu ward will extend further north.
There will also be an area at Matakana that moves from the Wellsford subdivision to the Warkworth subdivision.
Full details of the proposed review arrangements can be found here.
The council’s final proposal will be publicly notified for appeals and objections, which the council must forward to the Local Government Commission for determination.
The Local Government Commission is responsible for making final decisions on the council’s proposal.
