As New Zealand debates the Treaty Principles bill, Re: News journalist Baz Macdonald takes a close look at a controversial grassroots organisation, Stop Co-Governance, which has campaigned for Treaty reform for years.
Watch the full story on our home for news, in-depth and consumer stories TVNZ+.
While the Treaty Principles Bill has brought the discussion of Treaty reform to Parliament and wider Aotearoa, there are many groups who have been advocating for this for several years. One of the most controversial of them has been the Stop Co-Governance campaign.
Throughout 2023 Julian Batchelor – a former teacher, real estate agent and Christian evangelist – toured Aotearoa with his Stop Co-Governance campaign.
At more than 50 events from Northland to Southland, he delivered his presentation beside banners comparing co-governance to apartheid.
In it, he described pre-colonial Māori as a “primitive stone age tribal group”, and painted a picture of Aotearoa today as a country at war as “elite Māori” try to create “tribal rule”.
Batchelor’s presentation is three hours long, but summarised, his argument revolves around three key points:
- That by signing the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori knowingly ceded complete sovereignty to the Crown in 1840.
- That there are “elite Māori” who have influenced politicians, councils, courts, historians, educators, churches, lawyers, activists and the media into recognising the Treaty requires a partnership between Māori and the Crown.
- That co-governance is the next step in what he describes as a “war” within New Zealand – a takeover of the country by Māori.
Many of Batchelor’s meetings drew as many, if not more, protesters than attendees. They say Batchelor’s presentation is racist, misinformed and dangerous.
Some events escalated to physical confrontations between protestors and attendees.
Re: News attended an event in Paraparaumu in 2023, and as attendees were leaving, we witnessed that violence first-hand when a car accelerated and swerved towards protestors, clipping one on the arm hard enough that a wing mirror broke into pieces.
In response to claims of this kind of violence in his meetings, Batchelor told Re: News “you play with fire, you get burnt”.
“I was never in control of how the crowd responded to protestors,” he said. “But I applaud members of the public taking action to eject protestors who came to ruin their night.”
A legal scholar’s view
Dr Carwyn Jones has studied the legal dimensions of the Treaty of Waitangi for the past 17 years and worked with the Waitangi Tribunal.
He rejects the conclusions Batchelor has come to saying he can see how Batchelor would conclude that the Treaty does not require a partnership if you were only looking at the English version, but that the Māori version of the Treaty specifically includes tino rangatiratanga: ongoing Māori authority.
“He’s really only interested in progressing a perspective which is based on a Pākehā worldview, English language, and evidence based on colonial officials,” Jones said.
In a statement, Batchelor told Re: News, “Dr Carwyn Jones is pointing out a speck in my eye, when he has a log in his own”.
“He is only interested in progressing a perspective that is based on a Maori [sic] worldview, [and] Maori [sic] language,” Batchelor said.
Co-governance model
There’s dozens of organisations in New Zealand that have a co-governance model – most focussed on a shared responsibility for natural resources like rivers and nature reserves.
Tipa Mahuta is the co-chair of New Zealand’s longest running co-governance organisation, the Waikato River Authority.
Formed in 2010, it has a board of five people appointed by the government, and five from local iwi.
Having watched Batchelor’s presentation, Mahuta said many of Batchelor’s claims don’t focus on how co-governance arrangements currently operate, but on the “possibility that co-governance could take rights away from New Zealanders”.
“By virtue of omission, what he’s actually saying is that including Māori is anti-all of New Zealand,” Mahuta said.
In response to Batchelor’s claims that “elite Māori” were trying to take over the country, Mahuta said that in her perspective Māori were trying to take their place in New Zealand.
“If he’s saying there are hard-working Māori who seek to influence and support Māori futures – hell yeah, he’s right, there’s thousands of us. And every one of us educated to boot,” Mahuta said.
“But are we doing it to counter another culture or create some kind of regime here? I think we’ve got better fish to fry. We’ve got kids to raise and futures to create.”
In a statement to Re: News, Batchelor described Mahuta’s response as “boo-hoo”, or “victim card talk”.
“Maori [sic] are not oppressed. The opposite in fact,” Batchelor said.
“Presently, they are treated like first class citizens in New Zealand. Most Kiwis view the special privileges and treatment Maori [sic] receive as promoting apartheid, racism, and separatism.”
Watch this story on our home for news, in-depth and consumer stories TVNZ+.
