Out of 50,000-plus registered electors in Rongotai, just three proposed changing the electorate’s name. One of those who didn’t, former race relations commissioner Joris de Bres, is baffled by the decision to ditch a te reo name for Wellington Bays.

When the new electoral boundaries were announced by the Representation Commission last Friday, there was one that took me completely by surprise. Although the changes to the boundaries of my electorate were relatively minor, the commission has decided to change the name from Rongotai to Wellington Bays. From a Māori name to a Pākehā name.

I didn’t see it coming because when the proposed changes were published in March they didn’t include a name change for Rongotai. By the time submissions closed a month later, however, three people had lodged objections, not to a name change, but to the lack of a name change. Three people out of 50,000-plus registered electors in the area. If anyone noticed when the submissions were published in May, they could be forgiven for thinking that this was a ridiculously small number of objections.

Only one of the three actually suggested the name “Wellington Bays”. It was Neale Jones, well known Wellington political lobbyist and broadcaster, former chief of staff to Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Little. He said “the name of Rongotai does not reflect the geography or identity of the area. As a suburb, Rongotai only has 40 people. As the electorate’s boundaries grow the link becomes even less evident.”

That argument is a little disingenuous, as the Rongotai isthmus is largely occupied  by Wellington airport. But it is the bridge between the south coast, the Miramar Peninsula and Wellington Harbour, in other words all the bays that Neale Jones goes on to list in his submission. The local boys’ secondary school is called Rongotai College and it proudly proclaims:

Ko te Moana Raukawa ki te tonga (Cook Strait to the south)

Ko te Motukairangi ki te rāwhiti (Miramar to the east)

 Ki te uru, ko Whataitai taniwha (to the west, Whataitai)

Ko te Whanganui-a-Tara ki te raki (Wellington to the north)

Kei waenganui ko te Kura Taitama ko Rongotai ( Rongotai in the middle)

Jones, who has Māori whakapapa, said “I am open to the idea of another te reo Māori name but do not pretend to be expert enough to suggest one. However, one thing that does connect much of the electorate is that it is near the coast or has a view of the coast… Therefore I suggest the name Wellington Bays.” Funny that, because Rongotai translates as the sound of the sea, or for that matter the coast. You can hear it in the bays. He says there is a precedent for the name with the Auckland electorate of East Coast Bays. But unlike Wellington Bays, East Coast Bays is an actual and well-known name for that part of Auckland’s North Shore. 

The second objector, John Jamieson, imaginatively proposed that Rongotai and its central neighbour be renamed North Wellington and South Wellington. Unlike Jones, the third objector, Craig Spanhake, had no reservations about suggesting Māori names. In addition to Wellington South and Wellington Suburbs, he put forward “Te Waha o te Ika a Maui (means the mouth of Maui fish), Taputeranga (the centrally located island in Island Bay), Te Raukawa Moana (Cook Strait), and Paekawakawa-Motukairangi”.

In its report, the Representation Commission said that it adopted the names Wellington North and Wellington Bays “to more accurately reflect their current disposition and likely direction of future growth”. Name changes for a number of other electorates were rejected  “for reasons including lack of public awareness of the proposed name, lack of public feedback through the objections and counter-objections process” .

So, on the strength of one name suggestion by one man, and objections to the current name by two other men, a commission comprising seven Pākehā men made the decision to discard the Māori name and replace it with a Pākehā one. The majority of commissioners are heads of government agencies, the chair is Judge Kevin Kelly and the government and opposition nominees are former MPs Roger Sowry and Andrew Little. There would have been one Pākehā woman, the government statistician, but she delegated the role to her deputy.

Andrew Little lives in the Rongotai  electorate and is a candidate for the Wellington mayoralty. The present members for Rongotai and Wellington Central, Green Party MPs Julie Anne Genter and Tamatha Paul, have launched a petition against the change and are looking for legal avenues to challenge it. The current mayor of Wellington, Tory Whanau, has endorsed the petition. 

Is it too late? I hope not. I’m a Pākehā male too, but it’s bye bye Bays from me.