The Strategy and Policy Committee is responsible for:

• setting the council’s strategic direction and policy responses
• signalling regional issues that require council intervention
• setting the council’s advocacy position on regional issues
• responding to external agency statutory planning processes
• providing thought leadership across matters of regional significance
• establishing strategic priorities for organisational direction and policy setting

We partner with iwi Māori to ensure policy and planning reflects Māori values, knowledge, and aspirations for freshwater and land stewardship.

• Iwi play a key role in catchment planning through joint management agreements and co-governance arrangements, ensuring Māori perspectives shape coastal and marine, fresh water and land management strategies, including in the Regional Policy Statement and regional plans – including the regional coastal plan.
• We work collectively through the Waiora Co-Governance Committee, where River Iwi and council representatives jointly guide decisions affecting the Waikato and Waipā rivers to deliver on Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato (the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River), which is the primary direction setting document for the Waikato River and activities within its catchment.
• Iwi contribute to catchment management plans, embedding kaitiakitanga and Te Mana o Te Wai, Te Mana o Te Awa in water management and land use decisions.
• We are progressing Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements, which enable iwi and council to work together on resource management in locally appropriate ways.
• Through these partnerships, Waikato Regional Council upholds its Te Tiriti o Waitangi commitments while fostering sustainable, inclusive, and culturally informed policies and plans.