Most of us assume Treaty settlements deal with Crown land. Not your backyard, not your family farm. But that assumption is starting to crack.

All over Auckland, iwi are using heritage provisions to claim parts of privately owned land as “culturally significant.” And, alarmingly, Councils are going along with it while refusing to tell property owners what the claims are based on.

One North Shore landowner was told by the Historic Heritage Unit (HHU) at Auckland Council that local iwi, Te Kawerau ā Maki, claims that part of their private land is culturally significant. After being denied any further information by the Council, the landowner went to the Ombudsman asking that any correspondence, about their private property, between the iwi and council be released.

The response was: “Council advises that it needs to maintain its relationship with the iwi to undertake its heritage functions effectively. It is in the public interest that the iwi continues to supply information to the Council for that purpose”. 

Read that again.

The people you pay rates to are more interested in keeping iwi happy than in being transparent with you, the property owner.

And this isn’t a one-off. We’re told there are more than 700 properties in Auckland under review for similar “heritage” claims.

Imagine what that means for your property value. For your ability to sell. For your mortgage. For your rights. If iwi can make hidden claims over private land today, what’s next?

And if you think this is only a New Zealand issue, look at Canada, where the government is folding private land into “shared governance” arrangements with Indigenous groups without the consent of the owners. It’s the same ideology, the same playbook.

This is why Hobson’s Pledge exists. Because we refuse to sit quietly while the idea of one law for all is chipped away piece by piece.