Ethnic Communities’ Perspectives of an Ethnic Advisory Panel in Local Government—A Case Study of Auckland

Abstract

This paper focuses on a study that was carried out to determine the perspectives of members of Auckland’s ethnic communities on an ethnic advisory panel as a way to represent their concerns and interests to the local governing council and how these communities view such a panel. The study highlights participants’ views of the relevance of an ethnic advisory panel to council and of such a panel’s influence in getting the council to take into account and remain cognisant of the needs of Auckland’s ethnic communities. The findings from the study show that ethnic communities want formal representation and an influential role in how plans and policies for the Auckland region and all its peoples are shaped. The study also reveal that ethnic communities want a sufficiently resourced representative body that can effectively take their concerns to council and have these concerns considered.