I’m the first person to accuse this Government of lacking political courage.  

They lacked courage on tax reform. They lacked it on climate change. Jacinda Ardern even lacked the courage to say which box she’d be ticking in the cannabis referendum, lest her position cost Labour a few votes. 

But you’ve gotta hand it to it this time, regardless of how you feel about co-governance, keeping the 50-50 mana whenua representation for the strategic oversight groups in the rebranded Three Waters policy is a politically courageous move. They could’ve gone with a watered down version, Māori representation at a level lower than 50 percent. They could have scrapped it altogether.  

But they’ve kept it. And the question now is whether Kieran McAnulty and Chris Hipkins have the political talents to sell it.  

We’ve heard a lot from supporters of co-governance that the arrangement is nothing new, that there are numerous examples where iwi co-governance arrangements are already in place and working well around the country. 

This is partially true, but it’s also a bit of a disingenuous comparison. The concept of co-governance is nothing new, but co-governance for the delivery of essential public services nationwide is much greater in scale and impact than anything that’s been established before.  

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. But if politicians are to introduce change of this nature, the onus is on them to explain why it’s necessary.  

Over the last 18 months, the Government has flipped and fudged and dodged and dived and done a generally woeful job of explaining its position. Even last week in her exit interviews, Jacinda Ardern responded to the co-governace question by telling John Campbell it was nothing to fear. 

That may well be the case. It may be nothing to fear. But dismissing it as such is not an argument in favour of breaking with the status quo. 

Labour has retained something akin to co-governance in the Affordable Water Reforms because they think it gives effect to the principles of the Treaty.  

They deserve credit for sticking to their guns. But along with the rebrand, they owe New Zealanders  a better argument for why co-governance is important.  

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