Voters have delivered four new councillors to the nine-strong Northland Regional Council – and voted to remove the council’s Te Raki Māori Constituency.
Council CEO, Jonathan Gibbard says based on preliminary results, the new councillors are Colin Kitchen (who will represent the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa General Constituency and who is returning to council after a three-year break), John Hunt (Coastal South General Constituency) and Pita Tipene and Arama Morunga (both Te Raki Māori Constituency).
Re-elected to council are Amy Macdonald (Coastal Central General Constituency), Joe Carr (Far North General Constituency), John Blackwell (Kaipara General Constituency), Jack Craw (Whangārei Central General Constituency) and Geoff Crawford, who was re-elected unopposed in the Mid North General Constituency.
Mr Gibbard thanked all those who stood for council and congratulated those who were successful.
He says a joint powhiri for all four new Northland councils is expected to be held at Waitangi on Thursday 23 October. Barring any calls for a vote recount, Northland Regional Council’s inaugural meeting will be held from 10am on Thursday 30 October.
Mr Gibbard says one of the first orders of business for the new regional council will be the swearing in of councillors, then selection of council’s new chair and their deputy.
Commenting on voters’ decision to remove the council’s Te Raki Māori constituency, Mr Gibbard says the outcome of the poll means that while council still have its two Māori seats for the next three years, they’ll be disestablished for the 2028 elections.
On the preliminary figures, 30,967 people voted to remove the two Te Raki Māori seats, while 29,589 voted to keep them.
“Our priority now is to support all our newly elected council members as they settle into their roles, so we can continue to lead the important mahi we’re here to do – for our environment and for the people of Te Taitokerau,” said Mr Gibbard.
The official result is expected to be declared on Friday 17 October.
“These will be issued via public notice and uploaded once all special votes have been validated by the Electoral Commission.”
At this stage, overall voting turnout was 47.7% percent of eligible voters – compared to 43.2% in 2022.
Election results are available from: www.nrc.govt.nz/results2025.
