Treaty obligations

An argument has erupted over a report commissioned by the Kaipara District Council that spells out a local council’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi. The report was prepared by Franks Ogilvie and peer reviewed by Simpson Grierson. That report concluded local councils are not the crown and therefore are not treaty partners. It said the obligations local authorities have arise from specific consultative and engagement requirements in legislation such as the Local Government Act and the RMA.

It seems Simpson Grierson may have come in for a bit of flak from other councils and, we are told, LGNZ for its role in reviewing the report. It subsequently released a statement “clarifying” the extent of its role. 

That response basically said it was not endorsing any opinions expressed in the report. 

We think that is stating the obvious. We understand the role of a legal peer review is to review the interpretation of any legal issues within a report, not any opinion that may be expressed. In fact, the Franks Ogilvie report confirmed the position stated in an article appearing in the May issue of Local Government magazine, written by two lawyers specialising in local government law.

They say the decision issued by McQueen J [Hart v Marlborough District Council [2025] NZHC 47] “has confirmed the long-standing (but perhaps little-understood) legal position: councils are not directly subject to the Treaty and its principles because local authorities are not part of the Crown, and thus not party to the Treaty." 

Clearly, Kaipara District councillor Erin Collins-Wilson missed that issue as she is reported as saying the Franks Ogilvie report “falsely claimed that councils were not part of the Crown.”

If the retiring Erin Collins-Wilson thinks local councils are part of the Crown, one must wonder if she learned anything during her term as a councillor.