Editors note: Mayor Clark offered this opinion piece to Stuff / Southland Times and they refused to publish in its original form.

Hi Team

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While we still wait for the 3 parties to agree on their coalition agreement, there are two significant changes on the horizon.

The voice of Maori in a democracy

I am a strong supporter of the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document for our country, be it the original draft English document or the translated into Maori document, signed 2 days later in early February 1840.

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What I don’t agree with is the principles and interpretations that came about in the mid 1970s, championed by the government of the day and based on some guiding principles offering by a Maori MP, which has in my view, led to culture of rewriting what is actually said in the Maori document and a rewrite of history.

The evolution by successive governments has led to an ever increasing divide in our community between Waitangi Tribunal led claims and the notion of democracy, where all are equal (as quoted in the treaty).

This has now evolved into a process of most things council does requires iwi blessing / iwi consultation.

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So, how and why do 17% of our community get additions rights to be consulted ? I agree with Maori wards to facilitate that iwi voice to help redress some injustices in the past. But it seems that many tribes decline these council offered wards (elected members of council) because the wards are open to both mana whenua and maata waka (the latter, in our case, being those from the northern tribes who outnumber mana whenua).

So, following declining of a Maori ward by mana whenua in our city, we end up with Maori representatives who are not elected by the 9,500 Maori in our city nor the public ratepayers at large.

This is not a statement of disrespect to those who fill those roles, just that the voice process, is not right in a democracy, in my view.

For me there is no mention of partnership nor Maori sovereignty in the Maori copy of the treaty. In fact, the colonising governor stated on signing, we are now one people.

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I am fed up with the terms like “white male”, “coloniser”, “racist and “Maori hater” and “non Maori” just because I challenge the divide being created by those who wish to divide our country into New Zealanders and New Zealanders who can trace a Maori relative.

I support a review of our currently distorted history and differing rights built on that distortion.

I recently spoke to a politician who challenges the same divide and was concerned that had been threatened by “it is risky you raise these issues, given you live in a wooden house”.

I’ve worked most of my life in social services where I was passionate about lifting Maori families out of the deprivation that proportionally too many live in but this dividing approach is not the way forward.

And for MP Willy Jackson to comment on TV last week regarding the possible consequences of a referendum shows how wide the divide is.

The future of 3Waters

On another front, it seems like any 3Waters legislation that creates regional entities will be repealed. I think that is great for Invercargill, but maybe not for other councils in our region.

Many councils have such high debt levels on their infrastructure assets that they would agree to any size of entity including those smaller ones that not even the government was keen on, just to get rid of their debt.

The debt would transfer into an entity debt that is proportionally paid for, depending on the council population size.

For Invercargill, that has a level of debt 14 times smaller than other council in our region (that is other council is smaller than our city), we will cross subsidise that debt ie the annual need to repay that debt (often referred to as debt servicing).

A simple scenario is – if the government wanted 3 houses with different debt, on the same road, to join the debt and then each house paid a third, this is the outcome.

House one, has $1m in debt, house 2 has half a million and house 3 is debt free. The total debt is $1.5m and the average is half a million (half a million each to service).

House 1 is as happy as, house 2 Is not fussed either way and may not want to rock the government boat that might jeopodise other funding and house 3 is … well you can work that out for yourself.

Our city sits close to house 3 and so I continue to oppose any wider coalition.

If the future government wants to safeguard drinking water (about 3% of the fresh water provided to your house or business) then government should slightly increase taxes and fund councils to for the predicted shortfall from current rates, for predicted 3Waters upgrades.

Nobby Clark
Mayor Invercargill City Council.

Mayor Clark’s Opinion: Treaty, Democracy, and 3Waters Dilemma

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