Rangatiratanga, citizenship and a Crown that is ‘Māori too’: Boldness and the future of local government

The Local Government Review (the Review) must consider the Treaty of Waitangi 1 partnership principle (Te Tari Taiwhenua, Department of Internal Affairs, 2021). At the same time, the Review Panel has decided to ‘be bold’ (Te Arotake i te Anamata mo Nga Kaunihera, 2021, p. 52), perhaps creating opportunities to think about rangatiratanga (Waitangi Tribunal, 2016, article 2) and citizenship (Waitangi Tribunal, 2016, article 3) in greater depth. Considering, especially, how they may work together to contribute to good government, as te Tiriti o Waitangi’s Preamble envisages, ‘the Queen desires to establish a government so that no evil will come to Māori and European living in a state of lawlessness’ (Waitangi Tribunal, 2016 Preamble).
With the ideal of effective government in mind, this discussion paper is guided by two overarching assumptions. The first is that not all local government functions must be conducted by councils. Some functions could be more justly conducted by iwi, hapu, marae or other Māori political communitiesand managed to reflect rangatiratanga.