After a brief hiatus, the political debate over Māori co-governance with the Crown is firmly back on the agenda. Political editor Jo Moir looks at the role it will play in the lead-up to the election.
Analysis: In May last year the Opposition’s surprise release of the He Puapua report descended into a political debate about separatism and accusations Labour was using its majority to push through a two-tiered governance system.
It led to a ‘Demand the Debate’ campaign by the National Party under the leadership of Judith Collins, while ACT’s David Seymour needled away at it consistently, only dropping it off the priority list when his party started soaring in the polls.
It’s now firmly back and unlikely to go away with the Government just months away from implementing a Māori Health Authority, pushing ahead with a co-governance model for Three Waters reform, and going out for consultation on how else the Crown can meet obligations set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
It’s fertile ground for Seymour, especially with Christopher Luxon now leading National and taking a more moderate stance on the issue than his predecessor.
Luxon differentiated at his first opportunity on Tuesday when he dismissed the need for a referendum on co-governance after Seymour announced it would be a bottom line for any negotiations after the 2023 election.
Defining co-governance as separatism fits most comfortably in the New Zealand First bag of tricks and if Winston Peters is serious about throwing his hat in the Tauranga by-election, a seat left vacant by National’s Simon Bridges, then he’ll have a platform to demand his own debate.
If Peters runs in Tauranga, Seymour may well keep an ACT candidate out of the race to keep the path as clear as possible for National.
ACT will need to weigh up whether that’s a debate of ideas they can afford to sit on the bench for.
Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson, who is leading the co-governance work, is due to report back to Cabinet this month on feedback from targeted engagement, seeking approval to progress drafting a declaration plan.
The delays won’t sit comfortably with Labour, and getting legislation across the line before the election is now next to impossible.
Covid has severely impacted the work programme, and planned consultation has been delayed.
The completion of a draft declaration plan by the end of this year is now expected to land in the middle of next year, just as political parties are readying for a campaign.
The delays won’t sit comfortably with Labour, and getting legislation across the line before the election is now next to impossible.
Co-governance and coalitions
While Seymour’s so-called bottom line of a referendum has been sunk by National before it was even properly floated, there are other potential coalition arrangements that any declaration plan will inevitably impact.
This month’s 1News-Kantar Public poll had Te Pāti Māori holding the balance of power.
Its co-leaders haven’t ruled out any coalition arrangements but firmly support the co-governance model, including the Māori Health Authority, which Luxon continues to say he would scrap if in government.
Luxon is also against the Three Waters model and any co-governance in public services in general.
“We’re very clear on where it’s being used - unfortunately some political parties are trying to turn it into something it’s not.’’ - Jacinda Ardern
He says under the previous National government, co-management was implemented where local iwi worked with local and central government managing local natural resources.
“But what we’re now talking about is co-governance happening in the sphere of delivery of public services.
“Personally, I believe you don’t need two systems to deliver public services, you need a single system that has enough innovation to target for people on the basis of need.’’
Asked whether district health boards had delivered for Māori, Luxon told Newsroom, “not necessarily’’.
“So, we should have that conversation about how best to deliver that but having two separate systems that will compete with each other isn’t the way to do it.’’
But Luxon’s characterisation of the Māori Health Authority competing with Health NZ isn’t accurate.
The two entities will jointly commission primary and community services and co-commission kaupapa Māori services.
In addition, the co-chair of the Māori Health Authority, Sharon Shea, will also sit on the Health NZ board to ensure there isn’t duplication or conflicts.
Luxon’s preferred model is using social investment to implement powerful targeted interventions based off data.
He also told Newsroom re-introducing things like charter schools, which were scrapped by Labour, would improve educational outcomes for Māori.
Luxon’s forthrightness is a far cry from his interview with Newsroom in July, when he was reluctant to discuss his role as iwi development spokesperson, saying the job was particularly difficult as a “non-Māori’’ who didn’t have that kind of “lived experience’’.
Policy or playing politics?
The Opposition has spent the past year calling for the Government to be upfront about what it believes co-governance looks like.
Asked to give examples, the Prime Minister told Newsroom it wasn’t a secret and the Māori Health Authority and the Three Waters programme were clear examples.
“Health outcomes for Māori are worse in this country, Māori die younger in this country.
“We need to do something different about that and the National Party has no solutions on how they’d fix that, this is ours,’’ Jacinda Ardern said.
“We’re very clear on where it’s being used - unfortunately some political parties are trying to turn it into something it’s not.’’
That doesn’t include the Green Party, which for the most part agrees with Labour’s trajectory.
“Personally, I believe you don’t need two systems to deliver public services, you need a single system that has enough innovation to target for people on the basis of need.’’ - Christoper Luxon
If Labour had its time again it’s likely it would proactively release He Puapua, the report it commissioned to address how the United Nations declaration might be met.
The party has been on the back foot since day one after ACT and then National first released the details of it - many of which are out of step with what Labour would consider appropriate under a co-governance structure, such as a Māori Parliament.
The debate began with the Opposition pointing to a Labour co-governance agenda, driven by the Māori caucus within the party, and it has never really recovered from that narrative.
Luxon says he wants a genuine, intelligent, and mature conversation about co-governance, and that a debate should be able to happen without “names and mud being flung at each other’’.
But he also pointed out that politicians simply wanting to have a conversation about race relations shouldn’t end in them being accused of race-baiting.
Whatever way the debate plays out, it’s already underway, and will well and truly come to a head at next year’s election.
