The Waitangi 2025 pōwhiri for the Government and other MPs at the Treaty House Marae at Waitangi - Gerry Brownlee (foreground) arrived slightly dusty, leading to a local road being sealed in 2026.
Photo / Dean Purcell
The Waitangi 2025 pōwhiri for the Government and other MPs at the Treaty House Marae at Waitangi - Gerry Brownlee (foreground) arrived slightly dusty, leading to a local road being sealed in 2026.
Photo / Dean Purcell
Government Ministers are bracing for “invective” and harsh words at tomorrow’s Waitangi pōwhiri.
But for a moment, the dust between the Māori/Crown relationship settled with the opening of a new roading project in the Far North.
Ministers and local council members gathered for an early pōwhiri on Wednesday toopen a short (3.2km) but significant stretch of freshly sealed road leading to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.
For years, tens of thousands of people have travelled the metal Haruru Falls Rd to reach the grounds, but it was the journey taken by Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee last year that partly prompted the upgrade, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones said.
“Last year, Gerry Brownlee, the Speaker of the House, came over and the vehicle and maybe a little bit of himself was covered in dust,” Jones said.
“(He) felt, given there are 160,000 plus visitors to come here, is that the best we could do?”
Ministers and the local council gather for a pōwhiri to open a newly tar sealed road near Waitangi. Photo / Julia Gabel
The upgrade was funded by local and central governments, and behind-the-scenes, council staff worked over a three-month Christmas period to get it ready for this year’s Waitangi events.
“This small gesture is evidence of working together with Moko (Tepania, the local mayor), council, council staff,” Jones said.
Tepania echoed that sentiment. Vibes between the parties were so jubilant the local mayor even joked that every Government MP could have a road named after them if such collaboration continued.
“How many Government MPs are there? You can all have a road each if you give us some money?”
He said the Far North District Council managed 2500km of local roads and about 1646km of those were unsealed.
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania. Photo / Tania Whyte
He urged the ministers present, which also included Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka, to review transport funding allocations, saying he wanted funding to move to 10 year allocations rather than the current three year allotments.
“When we have Governments change, when we have councils change, you have gaps missing in the governance and decision making. What does that mean?
“It means some of our communities are still three decades and waiting for important roads to be sealed.”
Ministers and the local council gather for a pōwhiri to open a newly sealed road near Waitangi. Photo / Julia Gabel
Waitangi Limited chief executive Ben Dalton, who also played a key role in getting funding from central Government for the road, said when politicians were formally welcomed on the treaty grounds with a pōwhiri on Thursday there would be “a fair bit of invective towards Shane (Jones)and Tama (Potaka).”
“But no other person has put more money into the north than Shane Jones. People just need to remember that,” he said.
This would have been in part a reference to the Provincial Growth Fund, championed by Jones.
“And Tama (Potaka) spent yesterday out Oākura with Ngāti Wai sorting out funding by the climate damage (from the recent storms).
