By Fiona Mackenzie

…before 2025’s local body elections, Māori ward referenda, RMA reform, or the Coalition Government gets off its chuff!

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.

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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.

Crucially, the settlement also requires formal relationship agreements with Ruapehu District Council and Horizons Regional Council, enabling co-management of council-owned assets.

👉 Read the settlement: Ngāti Hāua Deed of Settlement PDF

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2. Then the Horizons Regional Council’s – “Partnerships” Everywhere

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.

👉 Source: Horizons Te Tiriti o Waitangi Review Report, 2025

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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

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THE ISSUES 

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?

2. What Ratepayers Deserve to Know

• 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.

3. What’s the Treaty Got to do With Ratepayers Anyway?

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.

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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.

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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.

This was on January’s Lions Waikanae garden trail.

Being on the border with Ukraine, the city’s appartment buildings have been on the receiving end of a lot of Nato / Zelensky missiles and drones, but apparantly this year it hasn’t been as bad as it was last year — perhaps because Nato is running low on them.

During his/her/its shooting spree it killed 2 young girls, wounded 18 more and then turned one of its 17 guns on itself. It recorded a video of it going through its ‘manifesto’ page by page which clearly demonstrated the severe mental health issues it was suffering from.

Says Matua Kahurangi: “This isn’t an isolated “tragedy” or an anomaly. This is a pattern. In March 2023, Audrey Hale, another transgender individual, massacred six people at The Covenant School in Nashville, including three children, leaving behind writings dripping with hatred for [her] Christian upbringing. Go back further to May 2022, and Anderson Lee Aldrich, who claimed a ‘non-binary’ identity, opened fire inside an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five and injuring nearly twenty. Again and again, the common thread emerges that unstable individuals in the trans community channeling their inner demons into violence.”

Ironically, this is in the state that Tim ‘Tampon’ Walz is governor of and a big fan of these people.

Wouldn’t it be good if instead of squandering billions of dollars on their Ukraine project, Nato countries spent it on infrastructure development aid to countries in Africa like Ethiopia? But they don’t, so China steps in and says, “We’ll do it.” Nato screams in response, “Oh no! China is an enemy too!” Doesn’t the absurdity of their thinking ever occur to Nato rulers?

People in the UK are now spray painting the England flag/Scottish flag onto rubbish left in the street so the council will collect it within 24 hours. 🙂

That wouldn’t work in Kapiti because the council stopped collecting it a decade ago. Private contractors now collect it. —Eds

One of the many ‘conspiracy theories’ in the covidiocy saga that soon became conspiracy fact; but Leftists refused to believe it and many of them still do.

from Newstalk ZB

Wellington commuters can expect more disruption on the beleaguered Transmission Gully, as work’s done to patch up a stretch of the Lower North Island highway for up to half a year.

The NZ Transport Agency is planning to re-surface and rebuild several kilometres of the road north of Porirua, likely meaning lane closures during the day, and full closures at night.

The work’s forecast to go from roughly October until March.

It comes just three and a half years after the $1.25 billion highway opened after years of delays, and relates to a legal battle with one of the road’s builders over unfinished work and quality issues.

The agency settled the matter out of court.

NZTA Regional Manager Mark Owen said the work’s not unexpected, but part of the road has deteriorated faster than expected, and concedes it will be frustrating for drivers over virtually the entirety of summer.

“At the moment there are some sections that are a little bit rough, and the chipsealing’s not always the most waterproof,” he said.

“[The road] was finished acceptable for people to use, but it wasn’t complete.”

NZTA is still finalising its plan for the work, and is expected to announce a schedule and cost over the coming week or so.

Owen concedes it’s frustrating and asks drivers to be patient, but sees this as the last major hiccup before the highway’s finally completed.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time … we’ve got an intensive programme to fix it so it lasts its life cycle.”

A proposal for Transmission Gully’s speed limit to be increased to 110 km/h is also being considered, but would likely have to wait until after this work.

Original

This should help to boost commuter train patronage, in theory. —Eds

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a powerful hearing titled ‘Voices of the Vaccine-Injured’. Families and victims shared heartbreaking testimony. Witnesses included Dr. Robert Sullivan, an anesthesiologist; Brian Hooker, father of Steven Hooker; Polly Tommey, mother of Billy Tommey; Emily Tarsell, mother of Christina Tarsell; Krystle Cordingley, mother of Corbyn Cordingley; Serese Marotta, mother of Joseph Marotta; and Eric Stein, brother of Jessica Stein.