Co-Governance and its opponents

Julian Batchelor has been touring the motu with his anti-co-governance roadshow, everywhere he goes he is met with protest

Batchelor’s hui in Ōtautahi

Aotearoa is on a long road toward decolonisation. These islands became part of the British empire with the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and iwi. Te Tiriti enshrined the right of Māori to tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) but this commitment was not honoured. Land confiscations occurred throughout the wars of the 1860s and after. In 1877, Sir James Prendergast, chief justice of the Supreme Court, declared that the treaty was ‘worthless’ because it had been signed ‘between a civilised nation and a group of savages’ when he was adjudicating a case involving land that Ngāti Toa had given to the Anglican church on the understanding that a school would be built on it. It wasn’t until 1975, almost a full century later, that the Waitangi Tribunal was established, and such unresolved grievances related to breaches of Te Tiriti could begin to be addressed.

Since then, this country has moved slowly toward honouring Te Tiriti. Co-governance has been around for a decade. Tiriti settlements have created partnerships between iwi and local and central government to manage natural resources. Five iwi and the Crown manage the Waikato River Authority, and Ngāi Tūhoe and the Department of Conservation share guardianship over Te Uruwera’s forests and lakes, to give some examples. Plans for reform of how the country manages freshwater, drinking water and wastewater (previously called Three Waters) incorporate co-governance, with mana whenua having equal representation with local councils in a top-tier governance group. The false idea that that would mean iwi gaining a fifty-percent control of water resources led to a Pākehā backlash, with “Stop 3 Waters!” signs appearing on fences around the motu and at protests held by groups like Groundswell, whose leaders were caught out not having read the legislation they were so opposed to. 

The most vocal opposition has come from Julian Batchelor, a former school principal and real estate agent as well as an evangelical pastor, who has been conducting a nationwide speaking tour. Bachelor has told audiences that co-governance is going to lead to “tribal rule” causing New Zealand ”to become the Zimbabwe of the South Pacific”