Panel: The Māori Crown relationship

01/10/2026

The Māori–Crown relationship: The why, the who, and the how
Public Sector, Spring 2026

I joined Helmut Modlik, Chief Executive of Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, and Steven Sutton on a panel at the Hāpai Public Aspiring Senior Leaders Masterclass, a workshop for tier three and four managers on the relationship between Māori and the Crown. I argued that for nearly 200 years Te Tiriti o Waitangi has been treated as almost everything except what it is, and that for the last 40 years the policy advisory system has relied on Treaty principles without producing substantive change in delivery. The principles of partnership, protection and participation are standards of conduct: they can be affirmed, but they cannot be costed, weighed against an alternative or run through an options appraisal. The articles, by contrast, allocate authority. Kāwanatanga and rangatiratanga settle who decides, who designs, who delivers and who is accountable to whom, and the machinery of government can work with that. I described Te Tiriti as establishing a diplomatic relationship between two enduring authorities, in which contested matters call for principled debate rather than one side prevailing every time, and in which public servants need to learn to work with ambiguity rather than force resolution.

Read the article: https://hapaipublic.org.nz/Article?Action=View&Article_id=150590

Reference
Hāpai Public. (2026). The Māori–Crown relationship: The why, the who, and the how. Public Sector, 49(3), 16–17. https://issuu.com/ipanz/docs/public_sector_journal_49.3_-_spring_2026