By Dr Muriel Newman

New Zealand is now reaping the consequences of the misguided appeasement strategy adopted by successive governments when dealing with the growing demands of radical Maori leaders. They have bent over backwards apologising and kowtowing to these activists, even though their subversive plan to impose tribal rule represents a major threat to the future stability and security of our democracy.

Having received numerous multi-million dollar “full and final” settlements and an endless stream of lucrative race-based contracts, these tax-free tribal businesses have grown into some of the richest and most powerful commercial conglomerates in the country.

But that’s not enough.

They are now using their wealth and influence to impose a form of tribal apartheid onto the country.

It’s not called that, of course. In true Orwellian fashion, it’s described as a benevolent-sounding partnership between Maori and the Crown, even though such arrangements create a two-tier society divided by race: a ruling tribal aristocracy with the power of veto and dictatorial control over decision-making, and everyone else – second class citizens in their own country.

This agenda was supercharged by the Ardern administration and increasingly shapes society through education, the media, courts, churches, academia, the arts…

In education, children from pre-school to university are being indoctrinated and radicalised into angry activists who believe anyone who is not Maori is racist, that colonisation is evil, and that Western civilisation is denying tribal leaders their right to rule.

This situation is increasingly dangerous, not only because successive governments have failed to take this matter seriously enough, but because tribal demands are escalating.

They no longer just want control of land they claim to have lost in the past, but all New Zealand land including private land – a policy the radicalised Maori Party intends progressing once they become part of a new government.

They want all natural resources especially freshwater and are presently challenging the Government in Court in yet another attack on Parliamentary sovereignty.

And they want every mountain, lake, river, National Park – the whole Conservation Estate, which accounts for almost a third of New Zealand’s land area.

In fact, a framework to achieve a tribal takeover of Conservation was developed by Jacinda Ardern’s Administration. An Options Development Group of 12 members – 8 representing tribal leaders and 4 representing Conservation Boards – was established in 2020 to review the operations of the Department of Conservation. It recommended “the delegation, transfer and devolution of functions and powers within the conservation system to tangata whenua” – including revoking all Crown protection of endangered species and passing that responsibility on to Maori!

The project resulted in endemic tribal influence in conservation.

The new Government plans to update Conservation legislation next year and has initiated a public consultation process. But if the Coalition is to honour its election pledge to end co-governance and He Puapua all references to Treaty principles and race-based rights must be eliminated from the new legislation.

Only then can the public be assured that a tribal takeover will be averted and the Conservation Estate future-proofed for all New Zealanders.

This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator, Fiona Mackenzie explains the stark reality of the situation we are now in:

“Across the country, people dependent on their business or employment income are being intimidated into silence regarding the influence of the tribal elite over many aspects of our lives.

“After the publication of my article DOC Promotes Ancestral Privilege late January, I was contacted by professionals from the tourism, conservation, recreation, and infrastructure sectors. They shared their concerns about how the situation has already reached an alarming point.

“For instance, they described how the Department of Conservation (DOC) in the South Island appears to have delegated full control of operations to the Ngai Tahu corporation. Tribal executives now strongly influence DOC’s planning, conservation work, and concession/resource management granting and renewals (controlling applicants using coercive tactics and wielding the power of veto).

“Business owners affected by growing iwi control are too afraid to speak out or make formal submissions about DOC’s discriminatory practices, fearing it could cost them their livelihoods.

“That’s why NZ urgently needs the support of individuals whose livelihoods are not yet affected by government or iwi control to make submissions on the DOC consultation. You have the freedom to speak up for those Kiwis who feel unable to do so themselves. I encourage anyone, who can, to take up this cause, as the consequences for New Zealanders will only worsen if this takeover continues.”

This is the ugly truth of the situation in New Zealand today.

Tribal leaders have manoeuvred and manipulated their way into positions of power within the “system”.

If this is not stopped, the consequences for conservation will be devastating – as the reckless mismanagement of the Urewera National Park shows only too clearly. What’s worse is that this disastrous approach will inevitably be replicated elsewhere should tribal groups be entrusted with the management of conservation lands.

The demise of the Ureweras represents yet another misguided attempt at appeasement – this time by Chris Finlayson, the Minister of Treaty Negotiations in John Key’s Administration, who sacrificed the former World Heritage Status National Park as part of a Treaty settlement with Tuhoe.

Under the 2013 Te Urewera Act, the Park was given a “legal personality”, which meant that while no-one owns it, the Government retained the assets – including huts, camping grounds, bridges, boardwalks, and a Holiday Park. A co-governance Board of nine – six from Tuhoe and three representing the Crown – was established as “kaitiaki”, or guardians of the Park, with annual funding of $2.2 million to maintain the Park and ensure public access.

In 2022, Stuff published a report revealing just how much the Park had deteriorated. It had been closed for months, facilities had fallen into disrepair, and public access was denied with boat ramps blocked, and tracks and roads barricaded.

Trampers’ huts were vandalised, and later burnt down until a Court injunction stopped the carnage.

Department of Conservation staff have been driven away, with Tuhoe claiming they would undertake pest control themselves. But tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of traps left rotting reveals the truth that the lofty “kaitiaki” claims that Maori are the true ‘guardians’ of New Zealand’s natural heritage, are nothing short of a lie.

A follow-up story earlier this month, reported further deterioration.

Pest control and conservation efforts have been “switched off” entirely, putting at risk one of New Zealand’s most endangered songbirds, the kokako.

The Department of Conservation’s ‘Mainland Island’ project had restored the bird population in the former National Park, but conservationists claim kokako numbers will now be ‘crashing’: “The Te Urewera Act signed the death warrant on kokako in northern Te Urewera, it’s as simple as that… They switched off 20,000 hectares of possum control. They just stopped doing it. There’s possums everywhere. Possums prey directly upon kokako – they kill the nesting females, they kill the chicks and they eat the eggs.”

Nor is it just the kokako under threat. Pest control in a kiwi sanctuary at Lake Waikaremoana has also been stopped, and there are now concerns not just for the future of kiwi, but also for the whio, or blue duck – another endangered species in the area.

The report reveals how the Department of Conservation, which provides the annual grant of $2 million to Tuhoe, could not say how much of that was spent on pest control: “The Department does not oversee how this grant is spent, other than at a high level.”

The Department was also unable to provide information about the state of kokako in the forest, claiming they hadn’t been monitored since 2014.

While millions of dollars of taxpayer funding continues to be delivered to tribal leaders, there appears to be no government oversight nor safeguards. This once pristine area of New Zealand – acclaimed around the world – has degraded into an ecological disaster.

Incredibly, the very same model that failed the Urewera National Park, has been adopted for Mount Taranaki, which is now recognised as a legal person under the name “Taranaki Maunga”. It too is managed by a co-governance board – in this case, eight from local iwi and four representing the Crown. In other words, the absurdity of giving inert landmarks a “personality” and legal status is nothing more than a political construct designed to transfer highly valued public conservation land into tribal control – and potentially, ecological disaster.

This is why preferential tribal treatment in Conservation affairs must be stopped.

But there’s more to it.

In their Discussion Document, the Department explains that their Section 4 ‘Principles of the Treaty’ clause is one of the “strongest” in New Zealand legislation, because of a majority Supreme Court ruling in favour of ‘preferential treatment’ for Maori: “giving effect to the Treaty principle of active protection requires decision-makers to consider extending a degree of preference to Iwi…”

As a result of that finding, even established businesses that operate within the Conservation Estate, that have invested heavily in infrastructure, are now under threat from tribal conglomerates objecting to the renewal of licences so they can take control and benefit from the goodwill that’s been created.

The Government’s new legislation must turn this situation around so tribal interests are not favoured above other New Zealanders.

That’s how things used to operate before the Department of Conservation became a money-making rort for Maori.

This can be seen only too clearly in the Punakaiki scandal.

In 2018 the Department of Conservation received $25.6 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to build a new visitor centre at Punakaiki, which included space for Ngai Tahu to operate. But along the way, cost over-runs and “partnership” demands upended the objectives: Ngai Tahu was to be gifted what ended up as a $45.5 million centre to run as a profit-making commercial venture for their own benefit, with the Department of Conservation renting space from them for its visitor services.

When the local Conservation Board was asked why the building was being given to Ngai Tahu, the Ngai Tahu-appointed Board member Kara Edwards responded: “This is an example of a Treaty Partnership in action. It’s offensive to suggest otherwise and I’m not having it”.

And the Department of Conservation’s West Coast director, Mark Davies claimed, “The facility would be an ‘exemplar’ of DOC and Ngai Tahu working together in a Treaty partnership”.

So, taxpayers ended up paying $45.5 million for a new Department of Conservation visitors’ centre, only to find it was given to Ngai Tahu – a $2-billion private business development corporation – to run as a profit-making operation through its tax-free charity, while taxpayers now fund the Department to pay rent to Ngai Tahu, so visitor services can be provided!

Shouldn’t such massive taxpayer exploitation be subjected to a proper independent inquiry?

And what about Ngai Tahu’s plans to co-govern the Waitaki River – a vital resource of national significance with three hydro-electric dams and five other power stations, as well as a myriad of other water users?

Fresh from its success in securing a $100-million-dollars from power generators renewing water rights for their Waitaki River hydro schemes, Ngai Tahu now wants to control the whole River.

Approval to investigate their co-governance proposal was secured from the Otago Regional Council, which has a Ngai Tahu ‘advisory’ board with voting rights – and from the Canterbury Regional Council, with its two Ngai Tahu-appointed Councillors.

Whether this outrageous proposal – from a conglomerate that is not only a major water user itself but has stacked the regulatory bodies it needs approval from with voting representatives – progresses or not, remains to be seen.

Without a doubt, conservation reform represents a major challenge for the Coalition Government: given the stranglehold that tribal interests have secured, will it honour its election pledge to remove all references to Treaty principles and race-based rights from the new legislation, or will it cave in and appease tribal leaders?

Originally published on NZCPR.