Te Pāti Māori Co-leader and environment spokesperson Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is today announcing that Te Pāti Māori will oppose the Natural and Built Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill at their first readings on the basis that they will weaken baseline environmental protections and undermine the rangatiratanga of whānau, hapū and iwi Māori.

“Te Pāti Māori cannot support the RMA reforms until changes are made to protect and restore our environment and guarantee the rights of interests of tangata whenua” said Mrs Ngarewa-Packer.

“Resource management is one of the most important areas of law, especially for us as tangata whenua and our rights and interests under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Legislation of this significance should not be rushed - Government must have the active consent of key tangata whenua.

“But instead key groups like the National Iwi Chairs Forum are urging caution and highlighting that the scale and pace of the reforms cannot be implemented on the ground. They also strongly reject the notion of a National Māori Entity on the basis that it would undermine the rangatiratanga of hapū and iwi.

“While we acknowledge some improvements from the existing RMA, such as the Tiriti clause using the language ‘give effect to’ rather than ‘take into account’, in other ways these bills take us backwards.

“These bills only require setting environmental limits that prevent ecosystems degrading from their current state. This is despite the situation across many different areas, where maintaining ecosystems at their current state is not sustainable. The current resource management regime at least requires sustainable management and environmental standards to reflect the safeguarding of life-supporting capacity of ecosystems, a higher standard than what is being proposed here.

“It is clear to us that the new regime will favour developers at the expense of the natural environment which undermines the government’s own core objectives with these reforms, protecting and enhancing ecosystems. We are currently facing an unprecedent biodiversity crisis and the imminent collapse of many ecosystems integral to our way of life – to weaken baseline environmental protections at a time like this is a sick joke.

“Co-governance is only a step on the road to realising our rights as tangata whenua, but these bills don’t even get us that far. Māori will be a minority on the crucially important regional planning committees, rather than being able to exercise the rangatira and kaitiaki leadership that is our right.

“Once again ‘mainstream’ interests are being catered for first, and those protected by Article II of Te Tiriti come second. Even the Tiriti clause falls short of requiring the Crown to honour Te Tiriti, despite their being precedent for that language in the Education and Training Act.

“On an issue as important as this, the Government must be striving for cross-party support, and Te Pāti Māori want to be able to support these reforms. We will be seeking a range of amendments to the legislation at the select committee. Our hope is that the Government is willing to work with us to set stronger environmental limits and ensure the framework is support by tangata whenua, so that we will be able to support these bills into law,” said Ngarewa-Packer.

Te Pāti Māori will seek a range of amendments, including:

• Setting environmental limits that require the restoration of ecosystems from their current state
• Holistic application of ‘Te Oranga o Te Taiao’, including cultural and social determinants
• Increasing Māori appointments on regional planning committees so that they make up at least half of the committees
• Changing ‘give effect to Te Tiriti” to ‘honour and implement Te Tiriti’
• Explicit acknowledgements of the articles of Te Tiriti, rather than the principles, and of tino rangatiratanga
• Remove references to the National Māori Entity in favour of references to accountability and oversight structures that are determined by NICF and NUMA

© Scoop Media