Nats choose iwi over Kiwi in bungled RMA deal

The anti-separatist group Hobson’s Pledge today (Friday, November 18, 2016) advertised in the New Zealand Herald to draw attention to a bungled deal between the National Party and the Maori Party to get a reformed Resource Management Act through Parliament.

For eight years, the Government has been trying to reform the Resource Management Act to reduce red tape, delay, and the escalating costs of development, spokesperson Casey Costello said today.

To get anything through Parliament, the John Key-led Government is relying on the support of the separatist Maori Party to get a slim majority of just a single vote, said Ms Costello, who is joint spokesperson along with former National Party leader Don Brash.

In return, the Maori Party required the inclusion of iwi participation clauses, which would require local government to invite local tribal trusts into co-governance arrangements, creating an under-the-radar constitutional change, Ms Costello said.

The anti-separatist New Zealand First Party repeatedly offered 12 votes to secure significant RMA reform so long as reform was based upon the principle of one law for all. But National has chosen iwi over Kiwi.

Ms Costello, an Auckland business manager who also works in property development, said that this extra level of consultation would increase red tape, delays, and cost, which is precisely the opposite of what the reforms set out to do.

"At a time where housing is such a significant issue, it defies logic to implement an additional complexity and consultation that will result in no benefit to any New Zealander including Maori," Ms Costello said.

Co-governance deals with a handful of tribal trusts entrench an unelected few with race-based power over everyone else, Ms Costello said.

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