New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones is entering the final stretch towards Election 2026 with three powerful Māori issues converging around him — the growing economic strength of Māori enterprise, the enduring importance of Kotahitanga following Koroneihana, and increasingly heated debate over the Government’s development agenda.
As Regional Development Minister, Jones has become one of the Coalition’s most forceful advocates for mining, infrastructure, forestry, energy and regional investment.
But as the election campaign intensifies, those policies are also putting him directly into debates about whenua, environmental protection, tino rangatiratanga and what economic development should look like for Māori communities.
MĀORI ECONOMY NOW A $32.6 BILLION POWERHOUSE
The latest Stats NZ figures provide an extraordinary backdrop to that debate.
Māori authorities controlled $32.6 billion in assets in 2025, an increase of $830 million in a year, while the Māori enterprises captured in the latest dataset employed approximately 55,700 people.
Stats NZ identified 1,362 Māori authorities and 4,488 other economically significant Māori enterprises — 5,850 businesses across the two categories.
Māori authorities generated $5.7 billion in total income and recorded a pre-tax surplus of $781 million, up 28 percent.
Māori businesses represented in the statistics also exported almost $1.45 billion in goods, demonstrating that the Māori economy is increasingly connected to international markets as well as regional communities.
The figures are particularly important for Jones because regional economic development and Māori economic development increasingly intersect.
Much of the Māori asset base remains connected to whenua, forestry, farming, fisheries and natural resources, while Māori businesses are simultaneously expanding into construction, healthcare, professional services, tourism and other industries.
That means decisions over roads, ports, energy, resource consenting, mining, forestry and regional infrastructure can have direct consequences for Māori businesses and landowners.
FROM ECONOMIC GROWTH TO ECONOMIC RANGATIRATANGA
The size of the Māori economy also changes the political conversation.
Māori are no longer simply stakeholders asking governments for regional development.
Iwi, hapū, Māori authorities and entrepreneurs are increasingly investors, employers, exporters and owners of significant capital themselves.
The question for Jones and the wider Government is therefore whether its economic programme can unlock greater productivity from Māori assets while maintaining Māori ownership, environmental responsibilities and the intergenerational character of collectively held whenua.
The numbers suggest the opportunity is substantial.
Māori authorities now hold tens of billions of dollars in assets, yet Māori unemployment remains disproportionately high. Turning collective wealth and regional investment into more jobs, apprenticeships, businesses and household income remains one of the major economic challenges confronting Māori.
KORONEIHANA REMINDS POLITICIANS OF A BIGGER PICTURE
That economic debate comes alongside another powerful development within te ao Māori.
Koroneihana 2026 again brought iwi from across Aotearoa together at Tūrangawaewae, while this year’s commemorations carried the weight of remembering significant leaders and loved ones lost over the preceding year.
For iwi, Koroneihana remains far more than a ceremonial gathering. It is a place where whakapapa, kotahitanga, political leadership and the future direction of Māori intersect.
Those themes matter in an election year.
Whatever political differences exist between parties, Māori political and economic aspirations increasingly extend beyond the three-year parliamentary cycle.
Whenua, whakapapa, economic independence and the ability of future generations to determine their own direction remain enduring kaupapa.
For politicians such as Jones, who operate simultaneously within Māori political traditions and the machinery of Government, that creates an increasingly complicated political landscape.
GISBORNE CLASH SHOWS DEVELOPMENT DEBATE IS HEATING UP
That tension has also been visible on the ground.
Jones recently clashed with protesters during a public meeting in Gisborne, highlighting the increasingly confrontational debate surrounding parts of the Government’s economic and development programme.
The confrontation is emblematic of a wider argument playing out across regional Aotearoa.
Jones has built his political brand around getting projects moving, extracting greater economic value from natural resources and challenging what he regards as regulatory barriers to development. Waatea’s recent coverage has similarly reflected his combative approach across regional development and major primary industries.
Opponents are asking a different set of questions — about environmental consequences, local communities, Māori rights and who ultimately receives the economic benefit.
For Māori landowners and iwi organisations, those questions cannot always be divided neatly into pro-development and anti-development camps.
Many want investment, infrastructure and jobs while simultaneously demanding protection of whenua, wai, cultural landscapes and decision-making rights.
That makes Māori economic development one of the more complex political battlegrounds heading towards November.
THE $32.6 BILLION QUESTION
Jones has long argued that regions need investment rather than stagnation.
But the latest Māori business statistics suggest the next stage of that conversation cannot simply be about what Wellington can do for Māori.
It must increasingly ask what happens when Government investment and policy meet a Māori economy that already possesses enormous assets, commercial expertise, export relationships and investment capacity.
Can Crown infrastructure investment unlock Māori land?
Can Māori businesses secure a larger share of major regional projects?
Can more of the almost $1.45 billion in Māori goods exports be converted into higher-value products?
Can iwi capital help build housing, renewable energy, tourism, technology and regional infrastructure?
And, perhaps most importantly, can that growth translate into jobs and higher incomes for whānau?
These are questions that will outlast Election 2026.
Koroneihana reinforces the importance of whakapapa and collective Māori aspiration. The Stats NZ figures demonstrate the growing economic power sitting alongside it. The protests confronting Jones show there is no automatic agreement about how that power — or the natural resources underpinning parts of it — should be developed.
Together they point towards one of the defining Māori political debates of the coming decade.
Economic development is coming. The real argument is increasingly about who controls it, who benefits from it, and what Aotearoa is prepared to protect along the way.
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