Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is standing firmly with Muaūpoko Tribal Authority after Minister Chris Bishop conditionally approved Plan Change 6A for Levin stripping all iwi references as a condition of approval.

“This is not just a planning decision it is a deliberate erasure of mana whenua from their own rohe,” says Ngarewa-Packer.

Muaūpoko are the kaitiaki of Lake Horowhenua. They have worked alongside Horowhenua District Council in good faith, upholding their whakapapa obligations and fighting for the health of the lake for generations.

For the Minister to remove any trace of that relationship as a condition of development is an insult to that mahi and a warning sign for every mana whenua community across the motu.

”We need more homes no one disputes that. But you do not build thriving communities by cutting out the people who hold the land, the water, and the whakapapa. That is not development. That is displacement.”

Lake Horowhenua has long suffered from poor water quality and environmental neglect. Iwi-Council collaboration has been central to efforts to restore it.

Removing iwi from the legal framework of Plan Change 6A does not just sideline Muaūpoko it undermines the very partnerships that make durable, community-led outcomes possible.

”This Government talks about cutting red tape. What they are actually cutting is the Treaty relationship. Every time they do this, they make it harder to build the trust that good governance requires.”

Ngarewa-Packer has written formally to Minister Bishop urging him to reconsider the conditions and allow Plan Change 6A to proceed as adopted by the Council with Muaūpoko role intact.

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