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Māori Party Dismayed as PM Hipkins Signals Co-Governance Slowdown
(Bloomberg) -- New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has antagonized the small Māori Party by suggesting the government may slow down work on co-governance arrangements with the nation’s indigenous people.
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Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said she was shocked and disappointed by Hipkins’ stance on co-governance, the term used to describe including Māori in decision-making for public assets.
The politically-charged issue is one that Hipkins, who took over from Jacinda Ardern last month, signaled he wants to diffuse ahead of an October election, saying “sometimes we need to take a moment so that everybody can catch up.”
“As a tangata whenua (Māori) leader and a political leader who was listening to that, I was really shocked,” Ngarewa-Packer said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “It’s disappointing when we see ourselves being shelved.”
Hipkins is attempting to win back middle-ground voters by walking back some of Ardern’s contentious policies and focusing on “bread and butter” issues such as the spiraling cost of living. Opposition parties have weaponized co-governance, saying it amounts to preferential treatment for Māori and undermines the principle of one law for all.
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In his first major press conference as prime minister, Hipkins said there was “uncertainty among New Zealanders” about what co-governance means. “I don’t want to get hung up on what has become a catchphrase,” he said.
Not Bold Enough
Ngarewa-Packer said the issue has become so contentious that politicians “don’t want to be bold enough to reaffirm exactly what it means.”
“Māori aren’t asking anyone to give up anything,” she said. “We’re not asking for any type of separate treatment. What we’re asking for is simply to be able to coexist in our own right.”
Co-governance has been at the center of discussions between politicians and Māori tribal leaders in the tiny settlement of Waitangi at the top of the North Island. The annual commemoration of the signing of New Zealand’s founding document, the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between Māori and the Crown, takes place Monday.
Hipkins must tread carefully, not only because of the sizable contingent of Māori MPs in his Labour Party caucus but also because he may need the Māori Party to form a coalition government after the Oct. 14 election.
Latest polls have Labour and the main opposition National Party neck-and-neck, with both needing the support of minor parties to achieve a majority. The Māori Party currently has two seats in parliament and could potentially hold the balance of power, even if it’s unlikely to side with right-leaning National.
Historical Injustices
The concept of co-governance is not new in New Zealand, where the government has recognized the right of Māori to share in the decision-making over public assets of cultural significance to them, such as rivers, lakes and forests.
Numerous Treaty of Waitangi compensation settlements — designed to address injustices Māori suffered during colonization, when vast tracts of land were bought from them for a pittance — have co-governance arrangements, including many that were negotiated by the National Party when it was last in government.
But lately the term has become politicized and used by disaffected voters and government critics as a derisive shorthand for Māori preference, with accusations that it may lead to the transfer of ownership of state assets to Māori and separate systems for Māori and non-Māori.
An example is the government’s controversial reform of water infrastructure, known as Three Waters. This involves moving drinking, waste and stormwater assets from local councils into four publicly-owned entities that will oversee the multi billion-dollar investment required to get systems up to standard.
Māori would be guaranteed the same number of positions as councils on the regional representative groups overseeing each of the four entities.
Ngarewa-Packer, who entered parliament at the 2020 election, said co-governance “is not a Māori takeover.”
“What it is, is just a dignified way of resuming our rights and interests,” she said. “But because it’s not palatable, because there’s a loud minority, it just gets shelved. And that’s happened for way too long.”
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