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"The "Local Water Done Well" Deception: How the Far Right Stole Our Wai" - 20 August 2025

The Puppets Dance for Their Masters

Ivor Jones The Māori Green Ltn

20 Aug 2025 — 13 min read

Kia ora koutou katoa.

The far right has now completed its grotesque assault on Māori water rights, with the Local Government Water Services Bill passing its third reading yesterday. This legislative abomination represents nothing less than a calculated theft of Māori tino rangatiratanga, disguised as "localism" and wrapped in the poisonous rhetoric of white supremacy.

The choreography was sickening in its predictability. National MP Ryan Hamilton celebrated the dismantling of Māori rights with the gleeful declaration "Goodbye Three Waters, hello Local Water Done Well. Goodbye co-governance, hello locally chosen and designed options. Hello localism and choice". NZ First's Jamie Arbuckle, that consistent advocate for anti-Māori policies, couldn't contain his racist enthusiasm: "Isn't it great to get rid of co-governance from this piece of legislation? Get rid of it! We are about New Zealanders. We are about Kiwis".Legislation-to-implement-Three-Waters-replacement-passes-third-reading-_-RNZ-News.PDF

These politicians aren't celebrating efficiency or fiscal responsibility. They're celebrating the systematic erasure of Indigenous rights. When Hamilton talks about "choice," he means the choice to ignore Treaty obligations. When Arbuckle cheers "getting rid" of co-governance, he's cheering the removal of Māori voices from decisions about our own taonga.

rnz

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/570445/legislation-to-implement-three-waters-replacement-passes-third-reading

The Hobson's Pledge Network Exposed

The stench of white supremacist ideology becomes unmistakable when we trace the connections. Casey Costello, who led the parliamentary debate for NZ First, is a former spokesperson for Hobson's Pledge. This lobby group, founded by the racist ideologue Don Brash, has been instrumental in spreading anti-co-governance propaganda throughout the water reforms debate.research-repository.griffith+1

Hobson's Pledge has consistently attacked co-governance as "undemocratic" and "divisive", while Costello herself spoke at anti-Three Waters rallies, arguing that race-based governance had no place in water management. The organisation's newsletter from 2022 reveals the true agenda: "Three Waters will still be an undemocratic and divisive theft from local communities".taylorfrancis+1

This isn't about better water outcomes. It's about maintaining white control over Māori resources. The fact that the same people who've spent years campaigning against Māori rights are now in government implementing their agenda should terrify every New Zealander who believes in justice.

Te Mana o te Wai: The Heart They Ripped Out

The most vicious aspect of this legislation is the systematic removal of Te Mana o te Wai from water governance. Te Mana o te Wai represents the fundamental Māori understanding that water has mauri, life force, that must be protected above all other considerations.semanticscholar+1

The government has announced its intention to "rebalance Te Mana o te Wai to better reflect the interests of all water users" - colonial doublespeak for prioritising economic exploitation over environmental protection. Under Te Mana o te Wai, the health of water comes first, human drinking water needs second, and commercial interests third. This government has inverted that hierarchy, placing profit above everything.semanticscholar+1

Legislation-to-implement-Three-Waters-replacement-passes-third-reading-_-RNZ-News.PDF

The Waikato River Settlement Under Attack

The legislation's most brazen Treaty breach is its override of the Waikato River Settlement. Hamilton City Council's submission warned that the new national standards "take precedence over Te Ture Whaimana (the vision and strategy for a healthy river) which is problematic".openaccess.wgtn+1

The Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Act 2010 established co-governance arrangements that recognise Waikato-Tainui's kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of the river. This new legislation deliberately undermines those legally binding agreements.ecologyandsociety+1

As Hamilton councillor Louise Hutt observed, the situation feels like being Gromit laying train tracks while being pursued by the evil penguin - except in this case, the government is the predator systematically dismantling decades of Treaty-based progress.openaccess.wgtn

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi's Truth-Telling

Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi provided the only honest assessment of this legislation, calling it "an atrocious piece of work". She identified the core issue: the government is "ignoring the role of Māori in the delivery of water services" and engaging in behaviour that is "deeply and only racist".Legislation-to-implement-Three-Waters-replacement-passes-third-reading-_-RNZ-News.PDF ecologyandsociety

Kapa-Kingi correctly identified this as regression, not progress. When she urged the government to "get the education," she was highlighting their wilful ignorance of Treaty obligations and Māori rights that have been repeatedly affirmed by the courts and the Waitangi Tribunal.mdpi

tandfonline

The Financial Fraud

The government claims "Local Water Done Well" will be more efficient and affordable, but Labour's Megan Woods exposed this lie, noting that the changes "shift the financial risk to councils and ratepayers". The government eliminated economies of scale that could have saved money, instead creating a "proliferation" of smaller, more expensive entities.Legislation-to-implement-Three-Waters-replacement-passes-third-reading-_-RNZ-News.PDF ecologyandsociety

This is neoliberalism 101: privatise the profits, socialise the losses. Councils will struggle with inadequate resources while private consultants and contractors profit from the chaos. Meanwhile, Māori communities will bear the environmental and cultural costs as water quality deteriorates without proper kaitiaki oversight.

The Broader Context of White Supremacist Attack

This water legislation doesn't exist in isolation. It's part of a coordinated assault on Māori rights under this coalition government. From scrapping the Māori Health Authority to undermining Treaty settlements, the pattern is clear: this government is systematically erasing Māori rights and voices from governance.ojs.victoria+1

The Waitangi Tribunal has repeatedly affirmed that Māori have rights and interests in freshwater, recommending co-governance arrangements to give effect to Te Tiriti principles. This government has chosen to ignore these legal findings in favour of white supremacist ideology.mdpi+1

Fighting Back: The Legal Challenge

Māori are not accepting this theft quietly. In June, 32 Māori Land Trusts representing over 150,000 landowners filed High Court proceedings challenging the Crown's failure to uphold Māori freshwater rights. The case seeks immediate action to stop water degradation and recognition of tikanga Māori and proprietary rights in water resources.mdpi

This legal challenge follows more than a decade of "broken promises" and "Crown inaction", despite the Supreme Court's 2013 acknowledgment of Māori water interests. The courts may provide the only pathway to justice when the political system has been captured by white supremacists.1news

The Māori Green Lantern fighting misinformation and disinformation from the far right

The Path Forward: Tino Rangatiratanga Over Our Wai

The passage of this legislation represents a dark moment, but it also clarifies the stakes. We cannot rely on colonial institutions to protect our rights. We must assert our tino rangatiratanga over our wai through every available means: legal challenges, direct action, and the exercise of our inherent authority as tangata whenua.

As iwi leader Tukuroirangi Morgan observed, Māori can't be shut out of water governance because we own most of it. The government may have stolen our voice from their legislation, but they cannot steal our whakapapa connection to our waters or our obligation as kaitiaki to protect them for future generations.1news

This fight is far from over. The coalition of racists currently in power will not last forever, but the damage they're doing to our environment and our Treaty relationship may take generations to repair. We must stand firm in our truth: water is taonga, Te Mana o te Wai is non-negotiable, and our tino rangatiratanga will not be legislated away by white supremacists in suits.

For readers who find value in this analysis and wish to support ongoing work exposing far-right misinformation and defending Māori rights, please consider a koha to HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000. The MGL understands these are tough economic times for whānau, so please only contribute if you have capacity and wish to do so.

Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.

Ivor Jones
Te Māori Green Lantern

https://democracyproject.substack.com/p/hobsons-pledge

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