52 Maranga Mai! Local authorities operate under the fiction that they are not the Crown, so they don’t have to respect or honour Te Tiriti. Local government is a new forefront for us – they pretend they’re not the Crown, but the Crown empowered them (Smith, 2021). Any history of the development of public works takings in New Zealand must inevitably include local authorities, as they and their predecessor organisations such as provincial councils were thoroughly and inextricably involved in the history and evolution of public works takings. In later years the responsibilities and activities of central and local government were also often very closely linked to this activity (Marr, 1997, p. 3). Public Works and local authority land takings were typically for the development of projects and infrastructure needed for the settler state. Māori rarely benefitted leading to further destitution (Reid et al, 2017, p. 67). The Pukekohe Council refused to allow the development of Māori housing “for decades”. Landlords were barred from renting houses to Māori (Bartholomew, 2020, p. 10). This meant Māori paid rates to local bodies, on which they were not represented, for services they did not receive (Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2016b). The Whenua Māori Rating Amendment Act (2021) Complex land legislation continues to hamper iwi, hapū and whānau from developing or building on Māori land today. The new Whenua Māori Rating Amendment Act (2021) allows councils to waive rates to make it easier for Māori whānau to utilise their land: Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta said nearly 100 years of a system that was not fit for Māori had resulted in the underdevelopment of Māori land and disadvantage for Māori living on Māori land. It had also resulted in a level of rates arrears which unfairly represented the level of unpaid rates on Māori-owned land (Ellis, 2021). While progressive, the Act contains no requirement for the abatement of unpaid rates debt and there is no provision to compensate for or address the decades of local council neglect in providing infrastructure to Māori land. Aotearoa is currently in the midst of a housing crisis. The Waitangi Tribunal is hearing a claim concerning housing (Housing Policy and Services Inquiry, Wai 2750) and Te Kāhui Tika Tangata, the Human Rights Commission has undertaken an inquiry into this country’s housing crisis which found that successive New Zealand governments have breached Māori and human rights, and Tiriti obligations, regarding the right to be housed. As the inquiry Right to a decent home: Measuring Progress states: Home ownership is one of the main sources of wealth in Aotearoa. People who own their own home tend to find housing more affordable, but in recent years it has become increasingly difficult for people to become homeowners. This is particularly true for Māori, Pacific peoples, and younger people. Home ownership has declined since the 1980s, with Māori experiencing among the lowest home ownership rates (45%), just above Middle Eastern, Latin American and African people (38%) and Pasifika peoples at 35% (Human Rights Commission, 2022). Māori home ownership rates have been falling nationally since 1999, with the 2021 Census showing it had plummeted to 26 percent, compared with home ownership of 41 percent for non-Māori (NZ Statistics, 2021). If developers’ demands are met and new homes are built, tangata whenua will not be able to afford them in the current market and freeing up land under the RMA will do nothing to address the housing instability for tangata whenua. We can assume that this land and these new homes will go to an expanding non-Māori population and likely only to those who are “wellheeled middle classes” (McCarten, M., 2021).