In modern New Zealand, a quiet revolution is underway. It’s not fought with placards or parliamentary votes, but in boardrooms and council chambers, behind closed doors, away from the people who actually pay the bills. This is the era of co-governance - a creeping transfer of power from elected officials to unelected tribal elites, rubber-stamped by faceless bureaucrats and backed by the silence of a spineless media. If you think this is some wild conspiracy, look no further than the growing list of councils now inking secret agreements with iwi groups without public consultation or oversight.
What’s unfolding in Taupō and Waikato is nothing short of a democratic betrayal. Under the guise of Treaty partnership and environmental stewardship, iwi are being granted permanent, lucrative control over water, land access, and key decision-making in local communities. Most New Zealanders have no clue it’s even happening.
Let’s take the Waikato River. You probably didn’t know that Auckland ratepayers will fork out $40 million over 20 years just for the right to draw a tiny fraction of water from a river that ultimately flows out to sea. Forty million dollars. Why? Because a so-called “co-governance” body, half made up of unelected iwi representatives, gets to charge the public to use water they don’t own. If “nobody owns the water,” why are we paying a toll?
The same story is playing out elsewhere. In Taupō, commercial operators on the lake must now pay annual taxes to local iwi for simply existing. Some pay up to $30,000 a year to fish or launch a boat. Events like triathlons are now subject to a cultural levy. This is rent-seeking dressed up as restitution, and it’s being normalised as the new cost of doing business in New Zealand.
It gets worse. In the South Island, Meridian Energy paid $104 million to a local iwi to avoid opposition to its long-term hydroelectric plans. Over one hundred million dollars, handed over not for land, not for resources, not even for services rendered, but simply so a project could proceed without tribal interference. And who pays for that? You do. It’s baked into your power bill, your rates, your cost of living.
This is state-sanctioned extortion, enabled by a bloated, unaccountable Treaty industry that was supposed to be “full and final” decades ago. Instead, it's a limitless pipeline of payouts, top-ups and veto power, expanding into every level of governance, especially local government where officials are far easier to pressure or manipulate.
This is not about righting past wrongs. This is not about cultural preservation or healing. This is about power, money, and a growing class of tribal aristocracy that has found a golden goose in the Treaty grievance machine. What began as a redress process has mutated into a permanent bureaucracy that siphons off public money, stifles development, and rewrites the rulebook without public consent.
Worse still, it's all happening under a cloak of secrecy. Councils refuse to release documents. Meetings are held with public exclusion. Elected councillors are sidelined by unelected staff who interpret their mandate liberally and execute tribal agreements without public input. If this isn’t the textbook definition of corruption, what is?
Where is the media? Nowhere to be seen. Petrified of being called racist, our media class looks the other way, too busy chasing clickbait or writing about transexual kids. What passes for journalism now is little more than curated silence, an accessory to the erosion of our democracy.
Even long-time Treaty supporters are sounding the alarm. Duncan Garner, a seasoned political journalist, has exposed the extent of these deals on his podcast. He describes a system where iwi sit at every table, levy charges on every project, and are empowered to veto or delay developments unless paid off. Most of this is based on ambiguous Treaty “principles” never voted on, never legislated, and now used to justify permanent race-based governance.
Click to view
This is apartheid by bureaucracy.
If you’re a ratepayer, landowner, business operator or just someone trying to get ahead in this country, you’re being locked out. Shoved to the back of the line. Told to shut up, pay up, and be grateful.
So where is the outrage? When local water ski clubs are kicked out of their facilities to make room for iwi-backed waka ama groups, when $100 million is transferred overnight into tribal bank accounts, when Aucklanders are paying millions to use water that’s supposedly “owned by no one,” why isn’t this national news?
The truth is, Kiwis are waking up, but slowly. We are seeing councils acting more like subsidiaries of tribal authorities than representatives of the public. We are watching economic opportunities disappear under layers of cultural red tape. And we are getting tired of being told that questioning any of it is somehow racist.
It’s not racist to demand transparency. It’s not racist to expect democratic accountability. It’s certainly not racist to ask why unelected iwi boards are given more say over your community than the people who actually live in it.
What’s racist is creating a system where one group has more rights, more influence, and more access to resources simply because of their bloodline. That’s not equality. That’s not progress. That’s the death of democracy, slow, silent, and strangled by good intentions gone mad.
This is the fight of our generation. If we don’t stand up now, don’t be surprised when your grandkids inherit a country they no longer recognise.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
Let’s take the Waikato River. You probably didn’t know that Auckland ratepayers will fork out $40 million over 20 years just for the right to draw a tiny fraction of water from a river that ultimately flows out to sea. Forty million dollars. Why? Because a so-called “co-governance” body, half made up of unelected iwi representatives, gets to charge the public to use water they don’t own. If “nobody owns the water,” why are we paying a toll?
The same story is playing out elsewhere. In Taupō, commercial operators on the lake must now pay annual taxes to local iwi for simply existing. Some pay up to $30,000 a year to fish or launch a boat. Events like triathlons are now subject to a cultural levy. This is rent-seeking dressed up as restitution, and it’s being normalised as the new cost of doing business in New Zealand.
It gets worse. In the South Island, Meridian Energy paid $104 million to a local iwi to avoid opposition to its long-term hydroelectric plans. Over one hundred million dollars, handed over not for land, not for resources, not even for services rendered, but simply so a project could proceed without tribal interference. And who pays for that? You do. It’s baked into your power bill, your rates, your cost of living.
This is state-sanctioned extortion, enabled by a bloated, unaccountable Treaty industry that was supposed to be “full and final” decades ago. Instead, it's a limitless pipeline of payouts, top-ups and veto power, expanding into every level of governance, especially local government where officials are far easier to pressure or manipulate.
This is not about righting past wrongs. This is not about cultural preservation or healing. This is about power, money, and a growing class of tribal aristocracy that has found a golden goose in the Treaty grievance machine. What began as a redress process has mutated into a permanent bureaucracy that siphons off public money, stifles development, and rewrites the rulebook without public consent.
Worse still, it's all happening under a cloak of secrecy. Councils refuse to release documents. Meetings are held with public exclusion. Elected councillors are sidelined by unelected staff who interpret their mandate liberally and execute tribal agreements without public input. If this isn’t the textbook definition of corruption, what is?
Where is the media? Nowhere to be seen. Petrified of being called racist, our media class looks the other way, too busy chasing clickbait or writing about transexual kids. What passes for journalism now is little more than curated silence, an accessory to the erosion of our democracy.
Even long-time Treaty supporters are sounding the alarm. Duncan Garner, a seasoned political journalist, has exposed the extent of these deals on his podcast. He describes a system where iwi sit at every table, levy charges on every project, and are empowered to veto or delay developments unless paid off. Most of this is based on ambiguous Treaty “principles” never voted on, never legislated, and now used to justify permanent race-based governance.
This is apartheid by bureaucracy.
If you’re a ratepayer, landowner, business operator or just someone trying to get ahead in this country, you’re being locked out. Shoved to the back of the line. Told to shut up, pay up, and be grateful.
So where is the outrage? When local water ski clubs are kicked out of their facilities to make room for iwi-backed waka ama groups, when $100 million is transferred overnight into tribal bank accounts, when Aucklanders are paying millions to use water that’s supposedly “owned by no one,” why isn’t this national news?
The truth is, Kiwis are waking up, but slowly. We are seeing councils acting more like subsidiaries of tribal authorities than representatives of the public. We are watching economic opportunities disappear under layers of cultural red tape. And we are getting tired of being told that questioning any of it is somehow racist.
It’s not racist to demand transparency. It’s not racist to expect democratic accountability. It’s certainly not racist to ask why unelected iwi boards are given more say over your community than the people who actually live in it.
What’s racist is creating a system where one group has more rights, more influence, and more access to resources simply because of their bloodline. That’s not equality. That’s not progress. That’s the death of democracy, slow, silent, and strangled by good intentions gone mad.
This is the fight of our generation. If we don’t stand up now, don’t be surprised when your grandkids inherit a country they no longer recognise.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
8 comments:
These are the policies that National were elected to get rid of. Unless people want to be second class citizens in a third world economy they need to ditch National and vote ACT or NZ First.
I suggest as of 1st January 2026, all Treaty Settlements cease, all legislation relating to the Treaty is removed, all Crown land is retained by the Crown, (not used for Treaty Settlements) the Foreshore and Seabed is held by Crown. All privileges to Māori, relating to accessing seafood be revoked before irreversible damage be done to our resources. Having been brought up around Māori and understanding their sense of humour, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they would just shrug their shoulders, and giggle at the stupidity of previous Governments that allowed the ripoffs to occur, and then life would go on. Let’s start out on a fresh footing and move forward instead of always backwards.
And pigs might fly!
Can we just pop this onto TV1 breakfast and the evening news as a repeat? Cor, what would that do to their ratings?
Excellent summary , but there really is nothing new here . But why don’t you write asking PM Luxon / Government asking them when Government is going to rid us of Maorification / Co-governance as National / Luxon undertook to do at election-time —- but continues to duck and has not even started to do . One of the first things they did was to abdicate responsibility for Co-governance to Local Bodies —and look what has happened as a result —- creating of Maori Wards , plus the APPOINTMENT of UNELECTED paid Maori to Councils , with full voting rights . Where is our democracy — annd our democratic rights? And Government don’t want to know. They have stood by and watched it all happen , and done NOTHING . Water and the control of our fresh water supply / resources ( ALL naturally renewable) is even worse —- given to Maori on the basis of hocus pocus myth and the supposed ‘personification’ of water underStone Age Maori lore — simply given away —- ie STOLEN from all other New Zealanders. And what has Government done about it / to reverse it . NOTHING !! The MACA situation is the same . Even worse is the refusal to close down and permanently dismantle the ultra , ultra totally Maori partial Waitangi Tribunal, , with its numerous clearly fraudulent , but unchallengeable, claims , coupled to its activist appointees and an activist infiltrated judicial approval system — jointly now seeking even to override our Parliamentary system .
Government have an obligation / responsibility to those who voted them into power to totally rid us of Maorification , based on National’s election-time undertakings / promises . They have chosen to ignore that responsibility / obligation — and indeed have continued to sponsor / promote the ideology imposed on us by Labour .
in a direct contradiction of their election promises .
Non-Maori New Zealanders ( circa 84percent of the population) are being more and more treated by Government as second class citizens , or worse, as Government continues to support part-Maori ( none of who have Maori blood anywhere near approaching 50pc ) , very few , if any , of who voted for National and its Coalition partners , in preference to its core supporters .
Not good enough Prime Minister / National —- you are ratting on we non-Maori big time .
Hugh Perrett
Auckland 1050
“The tribal takeover of local government”.
Aided and abetted by the that which masquerades as our “democratic government”, but which in reality is now “corporate feudalism”.
Luxon knows that all this is happening, and yet he does NOTHING !!
Why ?
Luxon is worse than useless as he aids and abets this silent coup.
It has to stop !!!
This. Says. Everything.
Yes Matua you are absolutely correct. There appears to be an escalated “grab” occurring through local govt channels right now in anticipation of the new RMA. A helluva lot is riding on that new RMA. It had better be good. Luxon can search overseas all he likes, but growth and increased productivity will remain a fantasy if this govt doesn’t decisively call a halt to the hugely expensive, expanding maori rort of NZ and her tax and rate payers. Forget, the banks, the butter and the supermarkets, with no leadership on this whatsoever from Luxon, we’re just fish in a barrel.
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