A Taranaki iwi says the Government has declared open war
on Te Tiriti and Māori by not carrying existing Treaty
obligations into its new laws on resource
management.
The government yesterday unveiled what it
called a “radical” plan to replace the Resource
Management Act (RMA) with two new laws: the Planning Act and
the Natural Environment Act.
RMA reform minister Chris
Bishop told RNZ his new laws would exclude the current RMA
requirement to uphold the principles of the
Treaty.
Instead the laws would be strongly focused on
the rights of property-owners.
“Cabinet has now agreed
on the shape of the government’s replacement legislation,
signalling a radical transition to a far more liberal
planning system with less red tape, premised on the
enjoyment of property rights,” he said.
Ngāti
Ruanui’s Crown-mandated agency said the south Taranaki iwi
wasn’t opposed to improving the resource management
system.
But Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui kaiwhakahaere
Rachel Arnott said they totally rejected not carrying over
Treaty obligations.
“This Government’s move is an
open attack on Māoridom.”
Arnott said the move
breached the iwi’s Treaty settlement and the
Government’s Treaty obligations.
She said excluding
mana whenua from key aspects of resource consent
applications, despite the negative impact on cultural
considerations, would significantly breach Te
Tiriti.
“The truth is simply that this Government
has an ideological and political commitment to gut
Tiriti-guaranteed rights of iwi, hapū and
whānau.
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Bishop said the Cabinet decided the current
first-in first-served allocation of resources including
freshwater wasn’t good enough “and so we’ve made the
decision to open the door to different allocation
methods”.
That includes the possibility of charging
for water – in spite of the Crown’s currently-held
position that no-one owns the water.
“But there’s
a lot of detailed design and policy to go on there, and
there’s a lot of issues to do particularly with Māori
rights and interests, to work through,” said
Bishop.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon refused to be
drawn on water rights: “There are a number of parties who
have rights and interests in water… I’m not going to get
into that detail.”
Luxon said the RMA had “been
massively weaponised, it’s not working and so we’re
going to cut it.”
“I’m not going to get into
conversations are yet to happen as detail is worked
out.”
The two bills are due to be introduced by the
end of the year and passed before the next election, ready
for councils’ long-term plan-making in 2027.
Luxon
said his Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka was working
on how to unlock productivity from Māori land.
Potaka
told media he didn’t know about the coalition ruling out the
Treaty clause in its RMA reform.
“The first I’ve heard
of it is right now,” Potaka told reporters at Parliament on
Tuesday morning.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui Trust
manager Graham Young said the deliberate exclusion of Te
Tiriti was an ideological shift threatening the
“partnership of sovereignty” developed through
Parliament, the Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand’s
Courts.
“Make no mistake, this is not about
balancing a flawed law and growing the economy: This is
about trampling key protections to the benefit of big
business.
“I must stress our extreme disappointed
that more robust discussions haven’t occurred when it
matters the most.”
Arnott said the avalanche of
anti-Māori policies over the last 12 months was consistent,
and by design.
“Māori rights are being
systematically erased by this Government. It is racist step
after racist step throughout every proposed legislative
change.”
Documents accompanying the RMA reform
policy launch say both new laws will presume land use is
enabled, unless there’s significant impact on the ability
of others to use their land, or on the natural
environment.
The Government also said those with
resource rights will get to expand them, despite the
rejection of first-in first-served resource
allocation.
Bishop’s RMA undersecretary Simon Court
said the current law’s scope was far too broad, and
“allows far too many people to rely on far too many reasons
to object and tangle progress in webs of absurd
conditions”.
The laws aim to streamline planning
between councils, allow more standardised consenting and
increase the number of “permitted” activities.
It will
also set environment limits, which the Government said would
provide more certainty around where development should be
allowed, while also protecting the environment.
LDR is
local body reporting co-funded by RNZ and NZ on
Air
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