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AUGUST 2025
GOLDEN TRIANGLE
MIKE’S THE MAN
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Veteran local body politician Dave Macpherson is back on the rails.
Mike Hanaray is no longer an unsung hero, he has the award to show for it.
Rachel Afeaki-Taumoepeau has a plan and she reveals it.
Our photographers captured people doing business around the region.
Mahuta’s memories Nanaia Mahuta has reflected on her final years in Parliament, sharing candid insights into leadership, reform, and the role of Te Tiriti in shaping New Zealand’s future. Roy Pilott reports.
F
ormer cabinet minister Nanaia Mahuta has provided an insight into her final three years in Parliament. Mahuta, who spent 27 years in the House before losing her Hauraki-Waikato seat to Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was the first speaker in a series organised by the Waikato Intercultural Fund, part of Momentum Waikato, last month. In her final three years she was handed the task of selling Labour’s Three Waters plan and the role of foreign affairs minister - having already carried the flag for the introduction of Māori wards as her government removed the ability of five percent of an electorate to force a referendum on wards. She was under constant pressure in both positions and it showed in media interviews. Most if not all disguised a warm and humorous personality which was on show at Waikato University’s School of Law, Politics and Philosophy. The speech was titled Honouring Te Tiriti: Pathways to Social Cohesion in Aotearoa - but branched out to be much more. She said of the treaty “we talk about a sense of belonging, and diversity being embraced – Te Tiriti is a living blueprint for it. It sets a trajectory to a unique sense of nationhood. “We have to believe that and move beyond superficial gestures.” She says it was important the country had the strength to avoid retrograde steps. The treaty could drive transformational change. Mahuta says the treaty should be at the centre of nation building. “I’m pro-republic and the treaty should be the founding document of the constitution.” Her assessment of the foreign affairs post and Three Waters issue came with two comments which drew laughter. Of the foreign affairs gig – which came as Covid took hold – she quipped “I thought I could become the only foreign affairs minister not to leave New Zealand”. On Three Waters “people pigeonholed Among the first people to approach former cabinet minister Nanaia Mahuta after her speech was Jacqui Fitzgerald, who taught her at Waikato Diocesan in Hamilton. The pair last spoke more than two decades ago
me as someone who was going to run away with the gold”. The biggest problem had been leaky pipes and bad water. Change required a whole system of thinking and a conscious bias in favour of the environment, she says. “Local government embraced it – just not the solution. There was a lot of negativity out there.” The plan was for four authorities to operate with a structure of council and mana whenua appointments. But many of those councils were spooked by the proposed level of voting rights for mana whenua. The plan was even branded an asset grab. “Maybe it’s worth a chapter in my book of life. Would I do it differently? No - I did the best that I could.” As she was speaking, the first two council controlled organisations were being established in the greater Waikato under the National led government’s version of Three Waters. “Foreign affairs – there was no book for Covid. I was the first indigenous foreign affairs minister. Did I have a plan, yes. Broaden indigenous dialogue. Zoom meetings became the norm. It taught you to get down to business quickly and it suited me.” Mahuta did travel overseas as foreign affairs minister,
including to the United Arab Emirates in 2020 which featured the first Festival of Indigenous and Tribal Ideas at a World Expo. She was inspired to have Pokarekare Ana sung to her in Korean and translated into Thai and she expressed pride in the indigenous collaboration agreements reached. And when decisions were challenged – even amongst Māori – she took that as a healthy step to change.
Mahuta spoke of working to ensure she was not consumed by the criticism and opposition – most of it coming online. “I had to find a way, rather than be consumed, to focus on the bigger project and promote change for the benefit of all New Zealand.”