As the 54th Parliament approaches its formal end on 1 October, it is time to take stock of nearly three years of the National-led coalition with ACT and New Zealand First. The Government itself does not formally end this week — Parliament dissolves on 1 October and the election is on 7 November — but politically, the first Luxon coalition term is entering its final days.
For Māori, my assessment is that these have been three deeply confronting years.
The Government would describe its programme differently. National, ACT and New Zealand First have repeatedly argued that public services should be organised primarily around need rather than ethnicity, that New Zealanders should receive equal treatment before the law, and that some previous co-governance and Treaty-based arrangements went too far.
But look at what actually changed.
Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, was abolished. Its functions and staff were transferred principally into Health New Zealand and the Ministry of Health. The legislation also removed joint decision-making provisions associated with the authority. The Government said this would end duplication and improve delivery through a unified health system.
That decision became significant enough for the Waitangi Tribunal to conduct a priority inquiry into both the process used to abolish Te Aka Whai Ora and the Crown’s alternative plans for improving Māori health.
Then came local government.
The coalition reinstated binding polls over Māori wards, reversing the previous system under which councils could establish them without facing a referendum. The Government presented that as restoring local democratic choice; opponents argued it subjected Māori representation to a hurdle that general wards do not face.
Education followed.
In 2025 the Government removed the explicit statutory obligation requiring school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Boards retain requirements to seek equitable outcomes for Māori students and provide opportunities to learn te reo Māori when requested, but the explicit Treaty obligation was removed.
And Māori media has hardly escaped the pressure. Te Māngai Pāho entered 2026 facing the expiry of $16 million in time-limited funding, although Budget 2026 subsequently provided $48 million over four years for te reo Māori and cultural capability. Te Māngai Pāho says that softened the impact but did not eliminate pressure on its baseline funding.
The National Māori Radio News Service that had previously been funded at $1.6 million annually was no longer funded in that form, with Waatea instead receiving shorter-term news and current-affairs funding as the Māori news ecosystem was restructured.
Not every claim made about this Government’s Māori record withstands scrutiny, however. For example, it would be wrong to say Mana Whakahono ā Rohe has simply been abolished. The mechanism remains available under the Resource Management Act and new arrangements were still being negotiated and signed during 2026.
That distinction matters because there is enough in the documented record without overstating it.
For Te Kaupapa, the bigger question is what all these individual decisions amount to when viewed together.
Health governance. Māori wards. Treaty obligations in schools. Curriculum disputes. Māori broadcasting. Resource management. Te reo in the public service. Māori housing and the wider debate about whether equity programmes should be targeted specifically toward Māori.
Any one policy can be debated on its own merits. The coalition says it has been removing ethnicity-based distinctions and focusing government on equal citizenship, need, outcomes and efficient delivery. Its critics see something very different: a sustained retreat from the recognition of Māori rights, institutions and partnership built over previous decades.
That is the choice voters now have to examine.
Because this election should not simply ask Māori whether they are better or worse off financially than they were three years ago.
It should ask something much bigger.
After three years of fundamental change, what place should Te Tiriti, mana Māori, te reo Māori and Māori decision-making have in the machinery of the New Zealand state?
On 7 November, voters get to answer that question for themselves.
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