Local Democracy News

After almost a century uniting Taranaki's eight iwi, the Taranaki Māori Trust Board is handing the reins to a new body set up under the region's Maunga Treaty agreement. The Trust Board began in 1930, after the Sim Commission found confiscation of half a million hectares of Māori land in the Taranaki wars was unjust and excessive. Its mantle will be picked up by Te Tōpuni Ngārahu, a body founded by the 2025 Taranaki Maunga Redress Act. Te Tōpuni Ngārahu kaiwhakahaere Wharehok

Struggling, stagnant and facing an uncertain future - that’s the forecast for South Taranaki as it begins a ten-year plan review. By law South Taranaki District Council must renew its long-term plan next year, despite not knowing its fate in the Government’s nationwide council revamp. The council’s proposal to merge with Stratford District Council in 2028 as part of the local government shake-up is in the hands of local government minister Simon Watts. But South Taranaki Dist

The Māori councillors’ organisation has called for the Government to cancel its cull of council-iwi resource management agreements. The Beehive plans to scrap Mana Whakahono ā Rohe deals in Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms currently before Parliament – a move opposed by Local Government New Zealand’s Māori councillors network, Te Maruata. Te Maruata co-chair Dinnie Moeahu said Mana the deals between councils and iwi had been widely misunderstood. "We want to be very clea

New Plymouth is to spend $660,000 to try and influence local council reform, despite not meeting the Beehive’s criteria to take part. The Government has ordered councils to amalgamate to make local government simpler and cheaper. It offered councils a ‘Head Start’ pathway to come up with reform proposals – but demanded bids be backed by at least two district councils. South Taranaki and Stratford councils have agreed on a Head Start merger proposal but rejected the invitation

Two Taranaki councils wanting to merge have set out early details of how they’d work with mana whenua after the Government’s local body reforms. South Taranaki and Stratford district councils unanimously approved a proposal to cabinet to join as one unitary authority, under Wellington’s Head Start process, this week. Taranaki iwi representatives have objected to limited mana whenua input into the rapid reform, especially after a Government reversal decreed Mana Whakahono ā Ro

A South Taranaki hapū has set up an arts, construction and horticulture training centre on land that took a decade to get back, even after a Treaty settlement. Ōkahu-Inuāwai opened Tokaora Te Tapuae Pae Pātūtū on Friday on the site of the former Tokaora School, just outside Hāwera. The new centre has a retail art gallery and training studio, with a conference room for hapū and community use. The site already hosts a house-building course and Ōkahu-Inuāwai plans an expanding h