Apology crawls towards reality after council Treaty bill strife

Sorry seems to be the hardest word at Taranaki Regional Council as it negotiates an apology for what's been described as "appalling" behaviour over the Treaty Principles Bill.

In January the council voted to investigate why a debate on the Government's Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill was shut down by conservative councillors at the council's December meeting.

The council agreed to apologise to people - mostly Māori - who wanted to discuss the contentious bill, authored by Act leader David Seymour, which would redefine how Te Tiriti is interpreted and applied.

TRC chair Craig Williamson is due to say sorry to New Plymouth District Councillor Dinnie Moeahu, who was approved to speak in December but was left fuming as councillors argued over his speaking slot and moved him down the agenda.

Mitchell Ritai - representing the north Taranaki tribes of Tokomaru waka on TRC's Policy and Planning Committee - last month described Moeahu's treatment as "really appalling".

At this week's Policy and Planning meeting Ritai asked about progress.

"There were some decisions made around a potential review and an apology and all that. Just wondering where those are at?"

Williamson said the council was about half-way through the process, with the results of the internal review due at next month's full council meeting - and he'd met with Moeahu.

"We've agreed that it's best to wait to see the outcome of the internal review first, digest that, and then we're going to get together again and have another chat."

Veteran councillors Neil Walker and Donald McIntyre have collectively spent 41 years in the chamber shaping submissions to Parliament but at December's meeting Walker declared the council "not a political body" and the Treaty bill "too divisive" and "not appropriate" for discussion.

Taranaki Māori representatives and their allies in the chamber said the councillors had trampled on mana, causing widespread anger in Māori communities.

They called for concrete measures to end ignorance on Treaty matters.

This week's discussion was sparked by a report from strategy lead Finbar Kiddle on TRC's priorities for working with local Māori in 2025, which set out the council's "extensive obligations to provide for mana whenua participation in Council decision-making".

Those duties mostly stem from the Local Government Act, the Resource Management Act and laws underpinning the region's Treaty settlements, including this year's Te Ture Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua - the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Act.

To meet these obligations Taranaki Region Council had:

• Established a Māori ward
• Put iwi representatives on key committees as required under the 2016 settlement acts for the iwi Te Atiawa, Taranaki and Ngāruahine
• Helped mana whenua take part in freshwater policy development, including by funding pou taiao (environment advisors) within iwi agency Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa
• Set up a Wai Steering Group to help develop a new Land and Freshwater Plan with four representatives from the eight Taranaki iwi, the council's chief executive, and other staff as required.

The committee approved priorities for mana whenua engagement in 2025:

• advance the Ngāti Maru joint management agreement
• advance the establishment of the Waitara River Committee under the Waitara Lands Act
• advance the Maniapoto relationship agreement
• engage with two new Crown-iwi bodies set up to put the Maunga Redress Act into effect
• engage with iwi and Taranaki's three district councils to explore governance arrangements for the RMA replacement and a potential combined plan giving effect to Treaty settlements
• keep working with iwi on a new Land and Freshwater Plan and future freshwater science and policy work

Kiddle's report said success would need "a significant lift in engagement at the governance level, different levels of shared decision-making, operational level partnerships with iwi and hapū, and designated resource".

Walker had been largely silent on Māori issues since December's Treaty Principles debacle but he questioned chief executive Steve Ruru over governance.

"If Steve would just like to explain what he actually means by the term explore governance arrangements with the other councils, because it could be that there's different views between different people."

Ruru explained the Government had signalled a move away from District Plans towards planning and providing services at a regional level.

He said TRC ought to be proactive.

"So, having a conversation with the district councils and tangata whenua about what are the range of governance arrangements that we might like to have in place, and what would work for Taranaki."

Māori ward councillor Bonita Bigham praised Kiddle for providing a comprehensive explanation that was blocked when the Tiriti bill discussion was quashed.

"This paper gives us that depth and that breadth and it's just probably a shame about the timing."

Councillor Donna Cram also praised a "great report".

"Really appreciate it. It gave me a better understanding, after some time."

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air