May 22, 2023
Māori keep place in water reform
Senior Cabinet Minister Nanaia Mahuta says she doesn’t think the Government has weakened its commitment to Māori through changes in the water infrastructure reforms.
Former minister Meka Whaitiri has cited changes to Three Waters and what she says is a weakening of influence by the Māori caucus as reasons for quitting the party.
Ms Mahuta says that’s Ms Whaitiri’s perspective, but she stands by the work she did as local government minister on the reform process before handing it over to Kieran McAnulty.
“Some of the core tenets of where the new minister had got it to, which was 10 entities instead of four but retaining the 50-50 representation (of Maori) was an important signal to me that there was a recognition Maori needed to be involved so I could see those aspects were retained and they were important to retain,” she says.
Ms Mahuta says she’s disappointed in the misrepresentation of co-governance by opponents of the reform.