The findings of a Waitangi Tribunal report on Māori appointments to regional planning committees under the incoming Natural and Built Environments legislation have been welcomed by the New Zealand Māori Council.
The council, along with the Federation of Māori Authorities and Te Wai Māori. had concerns that the proposed bill would incorporate a narrow selection process centred on iwi, in particular, post-settlement governance entities. The council argued that hapū, landowners and Māori communities needed to be represented as well.
In its findings, the tribunal says the proposed bill doesn't breach the Treaty of Waitangi and therefore it can't offer any recommendations to the government, but it also suggested that organisations like the Māori Council should be engaged in the process.
"We have found that the Crown's proposal that iwi and hapū should lead and facilitate the process to decide an appointing body is Treaty compliant at a high level of principle," it wrote.
Under the NBEA Bill, one of three bills drafted to replace the 30-year-old Resource Management Act, the government had proposed regional planning committees with Māori representatives, with iwi and hapū taking a lead role in appointing them.
NZMC spokesperson Tākuta Ferris says the council is pleased the government has changed its mind and given recognition to a wider range of voices.
Given a say
"Ko te tikanga ia i ngana te kāwanatanga kia kotahi te reo, i runga i te taumata kotahi, a ka riro mā ngā PSGEs a ngā iwi aua kōrero e kawe.
"Nō reira kei te koa te Kaunihera kua tahuri mai te kāwanatanga me te kī e tika ana me whai wāhi ai te reo o te hapū, me whai wāhi anō te reo o Ngāi Māori e noho nei ki roto i ngā hapori o te motu tae noa ki ngā whānau e pupuri nei o rātou whenua tukuiho, o rātou whenua taketake."
(The government had wanted to have one Māori voice in the process, and that would have been for the PSGEs to organise. So the council is pleased the government has agreed that hapū, Māori across the country and those who still retain their whānau land will now have a say during the appointment process.)
Ngāti Whātua Ōrāke deputy chair Ngārimu Blair says that while organisations such as urban Māori authorities have important roles to play within their communities, that does not translate to matters of resources allocation.
"A Te Tiriti-based relationship and service to urban Māori in our rohe does not translate to involvement in matters of the whenua and moana of Tāmaki – that is a step too far. Matters of natural resource management, planning and allocation are within the exclusive domain of tangata whenua to lead," he says.
Ferris says the bill is much needed to give a voice to Māori that hadn't been strong under the RMA. The tribunal noted that all parties involved in the inquiry agreed the regional committee must be set at a co-governance level.
"Me whai wāhi te Māori i runga i ngā mahi whakahaere, mahi whakatere kaua ko ngā mahi whakariterite noa iho, whakawaha rānei i ngā kōrero. Me whai wāhi tūturu te reo Māori, me whai wāhi tonu ngā mātāpono o te ao Māori hei arataki i ngā whanaketanga o ngā rawa haere ake nei," Ferris said.
(Māori need to be involved right throughout the law, not just in the formation of it. A Māori voice is needed to ensure that a Māori worldview is shared with the allocation of natural resources now and into the future.)
