Aperahama Edwards (right) during a Far North District Council meeting in April that voted to expand membership of Te Kuaka Māori Strategic Relationships Committee.
A move to ban voting rights for unelected council committee members is an attempt to "silence the Māori voices in the room", a Northland iwi leader says.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts announced on Tuesday that the Local Government Act would be changed so appointed members would not have voting rights on council committees.
It followed a social media furore over the Far North District Council's Te Kuaka Māori Strategic Relationships Committee, which has 10 appointed iwi and hapū representatives to six elected councillors.
All members - elected and unelected - can vote, but the committee can only make recommendations, not final decisions.
