Former PM Shipley takes helm of Waitangi Trust, governance hub for Treaty politics

Dame Jenny Shipley, New Zealand's first female Prime Minister (1997–1999), has been appointed chair of the Waitangi National Trust. She succeeds Tania Simpson. The Trust governs the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where the Treaty was signed in 1840 and where Crown-Māori relations surface most visibly each year. The strategic rationale for Shipley's appointment remains unexplained.