Newshub Nation's political panel sat down on Saturday to discuss the hot-button topics of the week.
On the panel was Te Whānau O Waipareira CEO John Tamihere, PR consultant Ben Thomas and host of The Hui Julian Wilcox.
Tamihere was asked about the conversation around co-governance after Labour announced its new affordable water reforms, a replacement for Three Waters.
Tamihere thinks the conversation's fundamental proposition is wrong.
"The right to the asset called water is still a customary entitlement to all Māori," he said.
"Māori rightly say, how do we get co-governance when we own 100 percent of it?"
"The real issue is how do the pākehās get into the room?" he asked.
Tamihere said National and ACT believe everyone owns the assets, while Labour and the Greens say nobody owns them.
"We know they had to go to a co-governance model to placate the true issue which is that Māori own the water assets, that's just the fact".
Tamihere says he's getting "tired of Three Waters being used as a code word to attack Māori".
Watch the full panel for more analysis.
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