Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government needs to prove what it said about co-governance wasn't just hot air

If anyone on a council at the moment can't understand why so many of us ratepayers are so hostile towards them, sometimes bordering on hatred, can I just suggest they take a look at what's going on with these agreements with iwi? That might actually give them a bit of an idea.

If you haven't followed this, Chris Bishop is planning to replace the Resource Management Act shortly and his replacement law will not allow councils to sign any more of these agreements.

These agreements are called Mana Whakahono a Rohe agreements. In some cases, and certainly in the more extreme examples, they effectively cede significant decision-making power to iwi.

The new law will not allow any further agreements to be signed but it will allow existing agreements to continue. So, of course, what's happening is that councils are rushing to sign as many of these things as they can before the law changes.

The Far North District Council is trying to sign five of them, apparently without involving elected councillors in the process. They're reportedly not even allowed to see the detail. 

I've had a letter today from the Mayor of Carterton drawing my attention to the fact that Greater Wellington Regional Council, which covers Carterton, is doing exactly the same thing, despite objections from two of its constituent councils: Carterton and Kāpiti.

Environment Canterbury tried to rush one through this week, then got busted and pulled it from the agenda.

The fact that councils are being cynical like this will come as no surprise to anyone because they did exactly the same thing with Māori wards when they knew that, in many cases, their own ratepayers did not support them.

But this gets much more difficult for the Government because it, particularly the National Party and ACT, said this co-governance stuff would end. Yet they are allowing it to continue under their new RMA laws by permitting these agreements to carry over.

They need to change that law. They need to change it before it becomes law if they really meant what they said.

Importantly, if they want to retain the faith of the voters who backed them to end this stuff, then they need to act when they have the chance next week, when the select committee report on the RMA reforms comes back. They need to say that these agreements will be rendered void under the new law and that whatever has been signed in a last-minute rush will count for nothing.

This is the Government's big test. It's the chance to prove that what it said about co-governance wasn't just hot air.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right. If anyone on a council at the moment can't
understand why so many of us rate payers are so
hostile towards them, sometimes bordering on hatred. Can I just
suggest they take a look at what's going on with
these agreements with EWE and that might actually give them
a bit of an idea. If you haven't followed this,
what's going on is that Chris Bishop is planning to
replace the RMA shortly, and his replacement law will not

(00:20):
allow councils to sign any more of these agreements. These
agreements called mana fuck fucker or are or hair agreements.
They basically, in some cases, in extreme cases, said sovereignty
to EWE. The law will not allow those to be signed,
but they will allow existing agreements to continue to exist.
So what's happening is councils, of course, are rushing to
sign up as many of these things as they can.

(00:42):
Far North District Council is trying to sign five apparently
without involving elected councilors in it. They're not allowed to
see the detail. Apparently. I've had a letter today from
the Mayor of Carterton drawing my attention to the fact
that Greater Wellington Regional Council, which covers Carterton, is doing
exactly the same thing, despite the injections of two of
its councils, Carterton and carpety E can in Canterbury tried

(01:05):
to rush one through this week and then got busted
and then pulled it from the agenda. Now, the fact
that councils are being cynical like this is of no
surprise to anyone, because they did exactly the same thing
with the Maori Awards when they knew their own ratepayers
in many cases did not support the Maori wards. But
this gets much more crunchy for the current government because they,
the act Party and the National Party in particular, have

(01:27):
said that this co governance stuff would end, yet they
are allowing it to continue under their new RMA laws
by allowing these agreements to carry over. They need to
change that law. They need to change that law, but
before it becomes a law. If they really meant what
they said, and importantly, if they want to retain the
faith of voters who voted for them to end this stuff,
then they have to when they have the chance next
week when the RMA Select Committee report comes back. They

(01:48):
have to say these agreements will be rendered void under
the new law. Whatever's been signed in a rush will
mean nothing. This is this government's big test to prove
that what they said about co governance wasn't just hot air.
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