Regional and local co-governance to stay, says Taranaki National candidate

National's New Plymouth candidate David MacLeod says co-governance measures he ushered in at Taranaki Regional Council would not be threatened by a National-led coalition.

National’s New Plymouth election candidate says regional and local co-governance arrangements would not be at risk if his party wins next weekend – but his opponents aren’t reassured.

David MacLeod spent 22 years working at Taranaki Regional Council (TRC), 15 of them as chairman, before quitting at the last election to instead stand for National in the New Plymouth electorate.

While leading TRC, MacLeod supported regional co-governance measures, including iwi appointments to council committees, a new Māori ward, and a council-funded iwi environment unit for the region working within Te Kotahitanga o Te Ātiawa.

National and likely coalition partners Act and New Zealand First are campaigning against co-governance with Māori, but MacLeod said that wasn’t a threat to the regional arrangements he oversaw or others like them.

“I have not seen anything that demonstrates that we’re against that.”

MacLeod said at a national level, Māori at the table weren’t representing iwi and hapū, but instead making sure te ao Māori perspectives were included.

“We don’t see co-governance, as in a 50-50 representation around a decision-making table, belonging at that national, at that public service level.”

But he said National thinks it makes sense for mana whenua to be involved in co-governance decision-making about “awa or maunga or whenua or anything like that”.

“As long as it’s the councils and communities that choose that, we’re right behind that.”

National wants to overturn the current Government’s replacement for the Resource Management Act, the new Natural and Built Environment Act.

That would end the Act’s co-governance aspects, which include a ‘National Māori Entity’ to monitor government Treaty obligations.

The law’s local co-governance measures would also be gone, including 15 Regional Planning Committees, with at least two Māori-appointed members setting long-term regional priorities alongside council and central government appointees.

But MacLeod did not expect National to change Te Mana o Te Wai, which requires local authorities to actively involve tangata whenua in freshwater management, including decision-making and setting policies and plans.

“I don’t believe there’s any policy out to remove any of that – that stays put.”

Te Pāti Māori co-leader and Te Tai Hauāuru candidate Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said it was impossible to divorce opposition to co-governance in central government from impacts on local arrangements.

“It’s just mindboggling that they think they can separate it - it doesn’t work like that.”

“Let’s look at that for us in Taranaki: that means the Department of Conservation and iwi for the maunga. That then gets operationalised at a regional level – and so all the regional entities and the iwi entities are involved and follow suit.”

She said for ministries like the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for the Environment, “the chequebooks are all at the top”.

“It’s not just principally about National’s values, it’s that they will not be funding these kaupapa - these are kaupapa our iwi have signed in good faith, and they’re expecting them to be honoured.”

“I can’t believe they would compromise some of these relationships, but they are.”

MacLeod’s direct opponent for the New Plymouth electorate, sitting Labour MP Glen Bennett, said National’s policies and promises were not the only consideration.

“When you drive around New Plymouth and see the signs from the Act Party saying they will ‘end co-governance’, what does that look like under a coalition with Act and New Zealand First?”

Bennett was worried the progress of recent years would be lost.

He said under the Natural and Built Environment Act, local authorities working alongside Māori would bring a long-term, multi-generational view to planning.

“We need to see it for what it is, which is exciting and progressive, rather than the negative rhetoric of race-baiting I keep hearing in this political environment.”

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.