I want to the council to help turn the relationship between the Crown and Mana Whenua into a tue partnership.
To do this the first thing I would do is spend a significant fraction of my time as a councillor listening to the iwi and hapu of Wellington to understand their interpretations of Te Tiriti and take their guidance on how to understand it better. From there I would want to work with the various groups to address these aims and historical wrongs. Even in cases where the council, as the representative of the Crown, may need to acknowledge precedence of choie to mana whenua.
One distinct thing I would push council to adopt is a true billingual organization. All council staff should be able to converse comfortably in Te Reo as well as English. This can be done through requiring it for senior roles as well as having an ongoing requirement for all staff to reach a conversational level over a period of time from employment. With support for staff to reach that point.
All council communications should be in a mimimum of Te Reo and English. I would also push to for council to explore and understand what would be needed to release all council regulations and by-laws in bother Te Reo and English. As opposed to the current state when the only binding wording is in English. This will not be easy but I do think it's important enough to do.
Beyond this I cannot have any details as it all depends on getting up to speed with the conversations that have been had, the actions that have been taken, and understanding/discovering what actions will need to be taken. We did not get into this situation overnight and it will not be addressed overnight.
Authorised by James Sullivan. James@TFG.nz