Don’t Piss Off The Boss?

This article by one Philip Conroy that appeared on the New Zealand Political Discussion and Research Group FB page, might be of interest. Make of it as you will.

‘This Isn’t About Representation Anymore. It’s About Power.
I’ve had enough of being told we’re imagining this, every time someone raises concerns about co-governance, Māori-only institutions, unelected representatives or the growing push for Māori political authority, we’re told it’s racist.
So let’s forget the slogans for a minute and actually look at what has been happening, because when you put the pieces together, there is a very real question about where New Zealand is heading.
Let’s start with He Puapua, it was commissioned by the Labour Government in 2019 to look at how New Zealand could implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
It was commissioned by the Government, and its recommendations are far bigger than simply protecting Māori culture. The report’s stated objective was a “refocus on rangatiratanga Māori” — Māori self-determination.
It proposed a constitutional transformation process and discussed changes to governance, Māori authority, local and central government, resources and institutions.
Among the recommendations discussed were Māori wards, joint governance bodies across government agencies, a Māori health system, a Māori court system and stronger recognition of Māori authority.
That’s not me making something up, that’s what’s in the report.
And here’s the part you all should know, One of the people who helped write He Puapua is now standing for Parliament. Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb is number four on the Opportunity Party’s candidate list, Opportunity’s own candidate information identifies her as a Treaty law and natural-resource policy expert and as a co-author of He Puapua.
That doesn’t mean Opportunity has adopted every recommendation in He Puapua, It doesn’t mean Kayla automatically speaks for every idea in that report today.
But seriously, are voters not allowed to ask her what she believes New Zealand’s constitutional future should look like? Because we’re talking about a report that explicitly examined shifting more authority towards Māori self-determination.
Now look at what Labour is proposing today.
Labour has announced a new Māori trades-training programme worth more than $20 million a year, targeting up to 3,000 Māori.
This isn’t a programme open to every New Zealander based on their circumstances, It is specifically targeted at Māori.
And Labour has done this sort of thing before, Its previous Government established the Māori Trades and Training Fund, with $66.202 million over four years for “by-Māori-for-Māori” employment-based training programmes.
Now, before someone starts screaming that I’m against helping Māori, no. I’m not. If there is a genuine problem and a programme works, let’s have the bloody conversation about it.
But we are allowed to ask why government is increasingly creating programmes according to ethnicity rather than simply helping people according to need.
Because the money isn’t coming from some separate Māori Treasury or the “booming” Māori economy, it comes from the same Government revenue paid into by New Zealand taxpayers, and that matters when we’re simultaneously talking about changing the way political power itself is distributed.
Now look at local government, for years we’ve been told Māori wards are simply about representation, and voters have now had their say in dozens of councils.
In the 2025 local elections, a majority of councils holding the relevant polls voted to remove their Māori wards or constituencies.
Northland is an especially interesting example, Northland Regional Council had established the Te Raki Māori constituency, with two councillors elected from that constituency.
In the 2025 binding poll, Northland voters chose to remove those Māori constituencies from future elections, People voted. That’s democracy.
But here’s where it gets truly interesting, removing an elected Māori ward doesn’t necessarily remove Māori influence from local government.
The Far North District Council has a Te Kuaka Māori Strategic Relationships Committee containing iwi and hapū representatives alongside elected members.
Those representatives are not elected councillors,and some non-elected members of council committees have been given voting rights.
The Government is now moving to change the Local Government Act so that only elected councillors can vote on council committees, arguing that people who exercise public decision-making power should be accountable to voters.
And the response?
Iwi leaders have argued that the change would reduce Māori influence in local government.
Think about that.
A government says:
If you have voting power over public decisions, you should be elected or democratically accountable.
And the response is. No, Māori should still have that influence.
Well, which is it?
Because I have a problem with unelected people having voting power over decisions that affect my rates, my community and my country, I don’t care whether they’re Māori, Pākehā, Chinese, Indian, Green, National, Labour or bloody Martian.
If you have the power, you should have accountability.
That’s democracy.
And this is where the bigger picture starts to emerge, Māori wards, Māori constituencies, Iwi representatives on council committees, Co-governance arrangements, Māori-specific institutions,The former Māori Health Authority, Māori-only or Māori-targeted government programmes, and political movements openly calling for greater Māori political authority and self-determination.
Some of these things have been rolled back.
The Māori Health Authority was abolished, the Government restored the requirement for binding polls on Māori wards.
Voters have now rejected Māori wards in a majority of the councils that held those polls.
But the argument hasn’t disappeared, far from it.
And Te Pāti Māori isn’t hiding what it wants, its political programme openly pushes for greater Māori political authority and constitutional change based on its interpretation of Te Tiriti.
Now if you look at all this and think about He Puapua………………………….. I’m not saying, “He Puapua was secretly implemented.”
That’s lazy, I’m saying something much simpler.
Read the report, Look at what it proposed, Then look at the political battles we’ve had since.
Look at co-governance.
Look at Māori wards.
Look at iwi participation in local government.
Look at Māori-specific institutions.
Look at Māori-specific government programmes.
Look at the argument over whether unelected representatives should have voting power.
Look at the people now entering politics who helped write the report.
Then tell me there is nothing worth discussing.
Because there is a huge difference between Māori representation within our democracy and Māori authority alongside or over parts of the existing democratic system.
Those are not the same thing.
You can support Māori.
You can support the Treaty.
You can support targeted help where there is genuine disadvantage.
And still say, Political power in a democracy must ultimately remain accountable to the people.
I have absolutely no problem with Māori being elected, If Māori candidates win an election, bloody good on them, If a Māori candidate wins because people voted for them, they have exactly the same democratic mandate as anyone else, in fact Māori representation is at a all time high even within the coalition Government.
What I object to is the idea that ancestry itself should create a separate political entitlement that doesn’t require the same democratic accountability, and I especially object to unelected people being given power over decisions that affect everyone.
Because here’s the part that seems to get forgotten, in some areas people didn’t elect an iwi representative, so they don’t answer to the whole electorate.
They can’t be voted out, Yet we’re increasingly being told that they should have a seat at the table because of who they represent.
Fine.
Let them represent their communities, Let them make submissions, Let them stand for election, Let them campaign, Let people vote for them.
But don’t tell me democracy means giving people political power while removing the one thing that makes political power accountable.
The vote.
This isn’t about hating Māori, It’s not about denying history, It’s not about pretending the Treaty doesn’t exist, And it certainly isn’t about saying Māori shouldn’t have a voice.
It’s about asking one bloody important question.
Who ultimately holds political power in New Zealand?
The people? Or an increasingly complicated network of elected politicians, iwi organisations, appointed representatives, boards, partnerships and institutions where ordinary voters don’t always get the final say?
Because if the answer is the second one, then we aren’t just talking about representation anymore.
We’re talking about constitutional change, and that deserves to be debated openly.
Not slipped into government policy one committee, one appointment, one partnership and one institution at a time.
New Zealanders should get to decide what our democracy looks like.
Not after the power has already moved.
Before it does.
One country.
One democracy.
One person, one vote.
And if someone wants political power over all of us, they should have to answer to all of us.
Chu’