Head of Māori Authority Matthew Tukaki and Rotorua councillor Tania Tapsell clash over co-governance

  • 31/03/2022

The head of the Māori Authority and a Rotorua Lakes councillor clashed over the idea of co-governance on Thursday. 

Earlier in the week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced public consultation on co-governance with Māori will begin later in 2022.

Her comments followed ACT leader David Seymour's announcement last week that a referendum on Māori co-governance, which he likened to an "unequal society", was a bottom line for any coalition negotiations in 2023.

The debate stems from the controversial He Puapua report, a think piece document commissioned by the Government in 2019 that sets out a roadmap to co-governance between the Crown and Māori by 2040. 

The report was commissioned as a response to the former National-led Government signing New Zealand up in 2010 to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).

Speaking with AM on Thursday Rotorua Lakes councillor Tania Tapsell, who also stood for the National Party in the East Coast electorate at the 2020 election, says co-governance would strip iwi of their voices. 

"I am for co-governance on a case by case basis, locally but when you try co-governance across the entire nation as a one size fits all model that doesn't work. It doesn't work for communities and it actually doesn't work for Māori as well who will also potentially be amalgamated into bigger groups," Tapsell told AM. 

Tapsell said the Māori Health Authority, possibly the most obvious example of co-governance, has stripped iwi of its local voice. 

But Māori Authority chair Matthew Tukaki disagreed. 

"That's nonsense, they do not [lose their voice]." Tukaki hit back.

"Iwi wants it, hapu wants it. The Māori Health authority is going to be a fantastic opportunity for us to reverse some of the horrible statistics when it comes to Māori health.

He said co-governance isn't new and has actually been happening locally for many years. 

"It works successfully. We have managed to look after our natural resources and so on and so forth for years now. This is not new." 

Watch the full debate above.