Co-governance ‘brings us closer together’
National Party leader Christopher Luxon says he opposes ‘‘co-governance’’ and denies his own party’s Whānau Ora policy is co-governance, despite it being about sharing power with iwi. Define co-governance and tell us what the Treaty of Waitangi principle of tino rangatiratanga means if it doesn’t mean power-sharing and partnership. An MP from each side of the House gives their views.
together as we increase understanding of one another and reduce long-standing inequalities. But we know fulfilling our legislative obligations is not a one size fits all concept and we have worked hard to put in place policies that are fit for purpose and that work.
Māori Health is the perfect example. Māori are over-represented in negative health statistics and die younger than other ethnicities.
We need to turn this around.
That is the focus of the Māori Health Authority.
This is a Crown entity that has been established to support the reduction of health inequality for Māori and I am proud of that.
We are focused on equity because we want a New Zealand where everyone has opportunities to grow, learn and thrive.
But we know there is still more work to do to make sure that all New Zealanders can do this and that is our Government’s focus.
We are committed to supporting New Zealanders on the bread and butter issues, like with the cost of living and by continuing to grow a strong economy so that everyone can get ahead.
Co-governance has become a major talking point in New Zealand over the past two years and it will almost certainly continue that way through to the election. National has been open and very clear on our view of cogovernance. That is, we do not support the co-governance of New Zealander’s public assets or public services.
There are, of course, examples of where co-governance has worked well for specific parts of New Zealand and they were done in accordance with Article Two of the Treaty of Waitangi.
New Zealanders can be justifiably proud that successive governments have delivered fair and equitable Treaty settlements, something few if any other nations have managed to do.
National has always been fully supportive of Treaty settlements, in fact under the guidance of Christopher Finlayson, the last National Government settled 59 Treaty claims, significantly more than any other.
The Three Waters legislation has quite rightly upset many New Zealanders who have seen their water infrastructure assets taken from them. They have been bundled into one of the four new water entities and not only have we lost ownership of them but also any meaningful say in their management.
Over many years Kiwis have paid for this infrastructure and now it is being turned over to these mega-entities run by six councillors and six iwi representatives, who will own and operate the Three Waters infrastructure on behalf of local authorities.
Public infrastructure belongs to all New Zealanders and the management of local assets should stay with local, democratically elected representatives.
The Māori Health Authority is another example of a divided system, one for those with Māori heritage and another for everyone else.The delivery of public services,i.e. healthcare, should be for everyone and on the basis of need, not ethnicity.
That is not to say that we don’t need to focus on those Māori in need but we can do that within the one system, with the likes of Whānau Ora and other community providers who can provide a ‘by Māori for Māori’ approach. But a fractured, divided and ultimately separate system that seeks to split New Zealand will inevitably lead to inequities that nobody in the developed world should experience.
There is more that unites us than divides us, and National is committed to better outcomes for each and every New Zealander.
search and rescue (USAR) teams via helicopter and hovercraft, loaned from Auckland Airport for the rescue, to free her.
USAR was ensuring not just the patients’ lives could be saved, but that the rescuers’ lives would not be threatened – they played a ‘‘really important role in making it possible’’, Aitken said.
It took two hours for crews to free the woman from the collapsed house. Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust said the woman, in her 80s, was taken to Middlemore Hospital in a critical condition.
The patient was in a stable condition on Thursday morning.
The damage to the structure was significant and ‘‘it’s pretty incredible there were survivors’’, Payinda said.
He said the response – on his second-last day as a doctor with the trust – was ‘‘amazing’’, involving eight or nine agencies and between 30 and 40 individuals.
Witnessing healthcare and rescue agencies working together to help people was ‘‘the best of New Zealand’’, he said.
‘‘It [was] the response you would want if it was your family in that house.’’
Aitken echoed this, saying Fire and Emergency NZ and USAR remained there hours after the patients were taken to hospital making the area secure.
‘‘It’s pretty amazing what these volunteer crews [and those behind the scenes] do for their community.’’
Franklin ward councillor Andy Baker was at Orua Bay last Wednesday afternoon as the owners and workers were ‘‘madly’’ cleaning up against a rising tide.
The bach was ‘‘a smashed house, really’’.
All that remained was a mix of mud, bits of walls, broken trees and items from inside the house.
Parts of a bathroom – cleaning products and all – clothing items and furniture were jutting out from the mud.
Local resident Julia Patterson was assessing her own house when she learnt about the damage down the beach. pile of