New Labour leader Chris Hipkins on co-governance: ‘No-one understands what that means’

Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has tendered an early opinion on one of the hottest political topics: co-governance.

Hipkins said “no one understands what [co-governance] means because we’re talking about quite different things”.

He added that it “hasn’t always been clear” what the Government has meant when it talked about co-governance proposals in the past, and offered to be clearer in the future.

Hipkins said he did not want to become “hung up” on “what has become a catchphrase”.

“There is an uncertainty in New Zealanders about what we mean when we are talking about co-governance. I want to make sure that in each context we are very clear about what we mean and I acknowledge that that hasn’t always been clear,” he said.

The remarks were made in Hipkins’ first press conference since he was elected labour Leader. He’ll be formally sworn in as Prime Minister on Wednesday.

The co-governance confusion was a reference to the fact that co-governance is not applied in the same way across each different policy area, and often means vastly different things

“We’re talking about quite often quite different things. If I look at some of the Treaty settlements that have been reached over the last 20 years they often have co-governance arrangements in them,” Hipkins said.

The Government has instituted co-governance at the top of the new Three Waters entities, with the four new water entities responsible to co-governed boards.

The Government has also put an element of co-governance into the health reforms, creating a devolved Māori Health authority, which is responsible for elements of Māori health but is also has a responsibility to co-design health plans for the wider population.

Hipkins noted that under National, many treaty settlements included co-governance provisions for places like the Whanganui River and Te Urewera.

“The National Government probably signed up to more co-governance arrangements through the Treaty process than any other government did. It means a different thing in a different context,” he said.

Hipkins said he would be narrowing the Government’s work programme in coming days, and reining in unpopular policies.

Policies that include co-governance, like Three Waters are unpopular. A Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll found 60 per cent of respondents opposed Three Waters compared to 23 per cent who supported it.

However, those reforms have already been legislated and undoing them would require parts to be repealed.

Ministry of Māori Development Willie Jackson has already said he would pause work on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous People, which many assumed would result in more co-governance.