The Coalition Government talks about refocusing councils on their core responsibilities. Yet it—like governments before it—has actively encouraged “partnership” arrangements between local government and tribes. While Wellington pretends to stand back, councils across New Zealand are committing constitutional fraud.
Without any mandate from voters, councils are overthrowing democracy by institutionalising tribal control. Unelected and unaccountable iwi entities and individuals are being granted powers over council decision-making, ratepayer funds, public assets, natural resources, and even private property rights.
This is happening behind closed doors, hidden in jargon and Māori phrases, obscured by legal structures the average ratepayer has no hope of deciphering. Many elected representatives are sidelined. The legacy media looks the other way, preferring celebrity gossip over exposing creeping tribal rule.
CASE STUDY: SECRET RUAPEHU COUNCIL –NGĀTI HĀUA DEAL
There are three levels of government doing deals with iwi in the Manawatū–Whanganui area:
1. The Crown’s Treaty Settlement with Ngāti Hāua
The Ngāti Hāua Deed of Settlement (Te Pua o Te Riri Kore) was initialled in November 2024, signed on 29 March 2025, and legislated in June 2025.
The deal includes:
Even before the Crown Treaty settlement, Horizons Regional Council signed a “Memorandum of Partnership” with Ngāti Hāua in October 2024. The document pledged the council to give effect to the undefined “principles” of the Treaty. Horizons chair Rachel Keedwell went as far as describing the council as “a Crown party” – which it most certainly is not.
By May 2025, Horizons had signed seven partnership agreements with iwi and hapū groups, with more in the pipeline. Out of 30 iwi, 110 hapū, and 60 marae in the region, the council appears intent on embedding iwi co-rule across the board.
3. And one of many - Ruapehu District Council’s Confidential Agreement with Ngāti Hāua Iwi Trust
In February 2025, Ruapehu District Council secretly signed a “partnership agreement” with Ngāti Hāua Iwi Trust (NHIT)—months before the Crown settlement was legislated. The iwi apparently demanded confidentiality. After some pushback, it was softened to allow disclosure only under strict conditions, with recipients seemingly obliged to sign non-disclosure agreements.
When challenged under the Local Government Official Information Act (LGOIMA), the council justified the secrecy on grounds of “sensitivity,” “wāhi tapu,” and “respect for iwi.” Yet the Ngāti Hāua Crown Settlement itself contains no wāhi tapu properties, so why is the Council now allowing the creation of some – or is this a ruse to deny public access to public land?
The secrecy seemingly protects councillors complicit in handing iwi rights over land, water, and mining ahead of elections or RMA reforms.
1. Why the secrecy over Ngāti Hāua and Ruapehu District Council’s Agreement? Are they -
The Treaty of Waitangi was between the Crown and chiefs who ceded sovereignty. It did not establish any “partnership.” By 1852, with the Constitution Act, New Zealand became a representative democracy. Councils didn’t even exist in 1840, and they have no Treaty obligations.
Yet successive governments—especially under National’s Chris Finlayson—shifted Treaty settlement obligations onto local councils. Many councils now willingly or submissively exceed even those obligations, granting iwi unelected/unaccountable appointments to boards, co-governance, veto powers, control of staff, funding, and privileged access to land and resources.
The result? Ratepayers and the public are stripped of their democratic rights. Expenses are through the roof! Decisions over ratepayers’ money, services and property are being made by unelected tribal bodies who cannot be voted out or held accountable in any way.
COUNCILS UNDERMINING OUR DEMOCRACY
The confidential Ruapehu–Ngāti Hāua deal is a textbook case. It may be just one of many being snuck through before the October 2025 local body elections.
Councils were never meant to be Treaty negotiators or agents of tribal rule. Yet they are signing away the rights of every ratepayer—without consultation, without transparency, and without accountability. Councils MUST serve all ratepayers equally, not act as brokers for iwi deals cooked up in secret. They have no constitutional or legal basis to bind residents to tribal control.
This is not about being nice and cultural respect. It is about power, assets, and control—quietly transferred behind closed doors, with the media asleep and government complicit.
The public must demand transparency, the names of councillors responsible, and the full release of confidential agreements. Otherwise, co-governance will be embedded permanently before anyone gets a chance to vote on it.
References
1. Ngāti Hāua Deed of Settlement – PDF
2. Ngāti Hāua Treaty Settlement – Whakatau NZ
3. Ngāti Hāua Claims Settlement Bill – NZ Parliament
4. Horizons Regional Council – Te Tiriti o Waitangi Review Report, 2025
5. Ngāti Hāua & Ruapehu District Council Partnership Deal – NZ Herald/Whanganui Chronicle
6. NZCPR – The State of Local Government
7. Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 No 174 (as of 01 July 2025), Public Act – New Zealand Legislation
Acknowledgement: Much of the initial research and information for this article was supplied by Democracy Action’s Susan Short and Nikki Hudson.
Fiona Mackenzie is a businesswoman who has combined self-employment with voluntary work and is a firm believer in the safeguards that true democracy provides.
This is happening behind closed doors, hidden in jargon and Māori phrases, obscured by legal structures the average ratepayer has no hope of deciphering. Many elected representatives are sidelined. The legacy media looks the other way, preferring celebrity gossip over exposing creeping tribal rule.
CASE STUDY: SECRET RUAPEHU COUNCIL –NGĀTI HĀUA DEAL
There are three levels of government doing deals with iwi in the Manawatū–Whanganui area:
1. The Crown’s Treaty Settlement with Ngāti Hāua
The Ngāti Hāua Deed of Settlement (Te Pua o Te Riri Kore) was initialled in November 2024, signed on 29 March 2025, and legislated in June 2025.
The deal includes:
- $19 million in financial redress.
- A $6 million “cultural revitalisation fund.”
- Return of 64 culturally significant sites.
- Rights to purchase or gain first refusal over Crown properties.
- Mining rights in riverbeds.
- Co-management frameworks over DOC land.
- Collection rights for cultural materials.
- Crown apology, “revised” history, and ancestor pardons.
- Read the settlement: Ngāti Hāua Deed of Settlement PDF
Even before the Crown Treaty settlement, Horizons Regional Council signed a “Memorandum of Partnership” with Ngāti Hāua in October 2024. The document pledged the council to give effect to the undefined “principles” of the Treaty. Horizons chair Rachel Keedwell went as far as describing the council as “a Crown party” – which it most certainly is not.
By May 2025, Horizons had signed seven partnership agreements with iwi and hapū groups, with more in the pipeline. Out of 30 iwi, 110 hapū, and 60 marae in the region, the council appears intent on embedding iwi co-rule across the board.
3. And one of many - Ruapehu District Council’s Confidential Agreement with Ngāti Hāua Iwi Trust
In February 2025, Ruapehu District Council secretly signed a “partnership agreement” with Ngāti Hāua Iwi Trust (NHIT)—months before the Crown settlement was legislated. The iwi apparently demanded confidentiality. After some pushback, it was softened to allow disclosure only under strict conditions, with recipients seemingly obliged to sign non-disclosure agreements.
When challenged under the Local Government Official Information Act (LGOIMA), the council justified the secrecy on grounds of “sensitivity,” “wāhi tapu,” and “respect for iwi.” Yet the Ngāti Hāua Crown Settlement itself contains no wāhi tapu properties, so why is the Council now allowing the creation of some – or is this a ruse to deny public access to public land?
The secrecy seemingly protects councillors complicit in handing iwi rights over land, water, and mining ahead of elections or RMA reforms.
- Media coverage: Whanganui Chronicle – Historic Partnership Deal
1. Why the secrecy over Ngāti Hāua and Ruapehu District Council’s Agreement? Are they -
- Concealing the scale of land transfers, mining rights, and water governance?
- Getting a leap on other iwi?
- Shielding councillors who signed away ratepayer assets?
- Pre-empting government reforms to the RMA?
- Avoiding public outrage over the cost to ratepayers?
- Why is there any wāhi tapu included and where is the affected land?
- What are the costs to ratepayers and impacts on the public from transferring public land titles to iwi (i.e. schools, clubs, DOC reserves, river margins, bush on Mt Ruapehu)?
- As third parties may include DOC or Council-Controlled Organisations, will iwi gain control over water services and conservation land?
- Which councillors pushed the iwi agenda? Their names must be made public.
The Treaty of Waitangi was between the Crown and chiefs who ceded sovereignty. It did not establish any “partnership.” By 1852, with the Constitution Act, New Zealand became a representative democracy. Councils didn’t even exist in 1840, and they have no Treaty obligations.
Yet successive governments—especially under National’s Chris Finlayson—shifted Treaty settlement obligations onto local councils. Many councils now willingly or submissively exceed even those obligations, granting iwi unelected/unaccountable appointments to boards, co-governance, veto powers, control of staff, funding, and privileged access to land and resources.
The result? Ratepayers and the public are stripped of their democratic rights. Expenses are through the roof! Decisions over ratepayers’ money, services and property are being made by unelected tribal bodies who cannot be voted out or held accountable in any way.
COUNCILS UNDERMINING OUR DEMOCRACY
The confidential Ruapehu–Ngāti Hāua deal is a textbook case. It may be just one of many being snuck through before the October 2025 local body elections.
Councils were never meant to be Treaty negotiators or agents of tribal rule. Yet they are signing away the rights of every ratepayer—without consultation, without transparency, and without accountability. Councils MUST serve all ratepayers equally, not act as brokers for iwi deals cooked up in secret. They have no constitutional or legal basis to bind residents to tribal control.
This is not about being nice and cultural respect. It is about power, assets, and control—quietly transferred behind closed doors, with the media asleep and government complicit.
The public must demand transparency, the names of councillors responsible, and the full release of confidential agreements. Otherwise, co-governance will be embedded permanently before anyone gets a chance to vote on it.
References
1. Ngāti Hāua Deed of Settlement – PDF
2. Ngāti Hāua Treaty Settlement – Whakatau NZ
3. Ngāti Hāua Claims Settlement Bill – NZ Parliament
4. Horizons Regional Council – Te Tiriti o Waitangi Review Report, 2025
5. Ngāti Hāua & Ruapehu District Council Partnership Deal – NZ Herald/Whanganui Chronicle
6. NZCPR – The State of Local Government
7. Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 No 174 (as of 01 July 2025), Public Act – New Zealand Legislation
Acknowledgement: Much of the initial research and information for this article was supplied by Democracy Action’s Susan Short and Nikki Hudson.
Fiona Mackenzie is a businesswoman who has combined self-employment with voluntary work and is a firm believer in the safeguards that true democracy provides.
10 comments:
Luxon - stand up and explain !
This is not democracy !
This is going on during your watch as PM, and you can not be ignorant of it .
Therefore you are complicit in the implementation of this switch from a democracy to an ethnocracy - without the consent of the voters.
You have become as evil as Ardern !
At the end of your term are you going to disappear offshore, too scared to show your face again in NZ?
React - do something, say something !
“The Coalition (Corporate) Government talks about refocusing (corporate) councils on their core responsibilities”, that of handing over ratepayers bought and paid for assets to corporate Iwi, in line and at pace with government’s role of handing over taxpayers bought and paid for assets to corporate Iwi. It’s like a well-oiled corporate agenda.
Well said Fiona Mackenzie! I have no doubt whatsoever that this is happening behind closed doors all over NZ. Councils are effectively stealing ratepayer owned assets from under us with no mandate to engage in such activities. It is corruption writ large and our coalition govt isn’t lifting a finger to stop it. In fact, I feel as though National and Potaka must actually be supporting it. Increasing numbers of us can see it, but god only knows what we can do to stop it. It is a huge betrayal of NZ voters and ratepayers.
As ex- Minister Mahuta said: Install Co Gov via the local govt route. Happening in front of your eyes.
If our coalition does not step in and stop this immediately, we will know precisely the trajectory of this Country (as if most of us did not already know). The first comment above is correct, PM Luxon has to be complicit with all of this as it was he and no-one else (except maybe under the influence of Potaka) who placed the Hon Simon Watts as Minister of Local Government, just as it seemed the Hon Simeon Brown was about to drop the hammer on Local Government shenanigans. Was this a deliberate reassignment to leave the door open for co-governance to continue its insidious march into our lives? Health needed a good sort out but substituting Brown with Watts has not done us any favours on the other important front in this war of blatant apartheid.
This is outrageous, and even the Crown settlement is nothing short of a rort. At every turn we're being sold down the river to a lazy, ungrateful pack of grifters. NZ is truly stuffed, unless we set up an alternative Tribunal examining breaches of the Treaty by Maori. It can start by examining the cost of their failure to be law-abiding, productive citizens since 1840. They'll need all of their $130billion economy to pay for that one alone, and that's before we even start to look at the killing, maiming and harm they've done up to this day, and including even what they've done to their own - given it's wider society that invariably picks up the pieces and bears the cost. Then there's all the other special assistance and support they've been given, again because they have failed to live up to their responsibilities as citizens.
But given that will never happen, we're stuffed, and it'll soon be everyone for themselves. Welcome to New Zimbabwe.
What legal right did Horizons (and the departing Chair Rachel Keedwell) have to sign away regional ratepayers assets? Do ratepayers have any recourse except expensive legal challenges? No wonder Ms Keedwell is not standing for re-election in October. She realized she was going to be outed and didn't want to face the consequences of her actions
Referendum now - uphold democracy, halt ethnocracy.
The rapidly deteriorating situation could not be clearer to ordinary NZers. What further proof is needed?
Why is Luxon preventing a referendum?
Luxon must be aware of the sorts of deals going on behind closed doors, as will NZ First. David Seymour has given his all to sort out Treaty Principles and the only way I can see to show discontent and the imperative to keep Crown land and assets in the hands of all NZ’ers is to vote ACT. Yes, we would still end up with a Coalition Government, but at least National would be a minority. Otherwise I can see another Labour, Greens and Te Pati Māori circus.
I have totally lost faith in this treacherous govt. They are no different than the imbeciles they replaced. Is this insidious tribal creep too complicated for these buffoons to recognise? I notice that the billboards promoting local council candidates carry no reference to their divisive skullduggery.
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