Update from Pou Taiao�Regional Engagement Hui
March 2022
Pou Taiao Current Workstreams
Kaupapa | Purpose | Current State |
Freshwater Rights and Interests | To address FW rights and interests with the Crown | The Crown has been clear, they will not be addressing FW Rights and interests this term, other than in the RM reform. A pending Agreement seeks to lock them into addressing this in the next term. |
Resource Management Reform | To protect FW rights and interests in the new legislation, to give effect to TOW in the Acts, implement TOOTT ensure 50/50 Governance and significantly improve our participation and leadership across the system. | The following slide shows the progress and areas of misalignment with the Crown on matters of RM reform. |
TMOTW Implementation | Uphold the integrity of TMOTW and ensure it is implemented by mana whenua in place | Working with MFE to progress a full package of implementation. MFE is stalling on the funding, we have completed some tools, and seek to do more work in this space, we are trying to access funding to achieve this. |
Three Waters | Implement TMOTW across the system to protect wai and lands, ensure 50/50 Governance and significantly improve our participation and leadership across the system, protect FW rights and interests in the Acts. | Significant progress through the Iwi Working Group which has in the main worked to achieve the purpose of the engagement. The devil will be in the detail and there is still much work to do but there is progress. The Working Group report is in your documents and we will cover this further today |
Conservation Reform | Address the implementation of Section 4 of the Conservation Act across DOC and new legislative reform starting with the Wildlife Act and Stewardship lands. Conservation Act is also up for reform | DOC and Pou Taiao are currently confirming an agreement and workplan for the next 3 years with Penny Nelson and her team, we should be able to provide more detail in our next update to the iwi. |
Biosecurity | Not managed directly through Pou Taiao technicians | |
Climate Change | Under climate change team | |
Natural and Built Environments Act
Strategic Planning Act
Climate Change Adaptation Act
Te Oranga o te Taiao
Legislative Reform Proposals
Privileged/Confidential to Iwi Leaders Group 15022022
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Te Oranga o te Taiao Concept Integrity�Exec Summary
Privileged/Confidential to Iwi Leaders Group 15032022
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Te Oranga o Te Taiao is based in matauranga Maori, and is only fully understood from an indigenous worldview
There is much to be gained from ‘leaning into’ indigenous environmental knowledge systems – globally recognised as a necessary and timely shift
Where Maori cultural concepts have been imported into law they have suffered, and the richness of those concepts has been lost
Decision makers and actors have previously been left unguided by how to adapt, incorporate or apply Maori concepts (te mana o te wai, kaitiakitanga etc)
Te Oranga o Te Taiao has massive potential as a nationally applied governing concept for resource management, but it needs to be properly understood by reform team/government
We want to prevent the erosion of the concept by
TE ORANGA O TE TAIAO IMPERATIVES �Te Reo o nga Pukenga
Privileged/Confidential to Iwi Leaders Group 15032022
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He tapu te taiao
He mana ano ta te taiao
No te mauri kotahi nga mea ora katoa
Ko te hunga tangata te taina, ko te taiao te tuakana
He ao whanui te taiao
Ko te rauora te whainganui
Ko te apopo tetahi whakaaro mo tenei wa tonu
He whakapapa ki nga mea ora katoa
He ao kotahi te taiao
He utu mo nga mahi katoa
Kei te whai oranga te katoa mena
Kei taka tetahi, kei taka te katoa
Ko nga tangata whenua nga kete matauranga o te taiao
Kei nga tangata whenua te mana tiaki
Kei te kawanatanga te mahi ki te whakatinanahia te Tiriti o Waitangi
Refresh on our positions for RM Reform; what we have been seeking…
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TE REO O NGA PUKENGA | REFORM IMPERATIVES |
He tapu te taiao | The taiao *is* both physical and spiritual. Arbitrary/inconsistent Crown treatment of te ao wairua won’t remove that. A recognition that tangata whenua consider themselves intrinsically interwoven with te taiao. Seek proscriptive measures through legislation that require decision makers/applicants etc to factor this into decision making, but not co-opt it out to others on our behalf. |
He mana ano to te taiao | The taiao elevated as having its own intrinsic authority |
Nga te mauri kotahi nga mea ora katoa | Ensure compartmentalisation is avoided; or at minimum offset with considerations of inter-connection and impact on the whole. Systems-thinking approach to appropriate use, impact. |
He ao whanui te taiao | The definition of ‘environment’ or ‘taiao’ must be wide-ranging, comprehensive and inclusive; and can not be non-sensical in terms of legal definition. The built environment is viewed as an extension/product of human use, not separate to it. |
Ko te hunga tangata te taina, ko te taiao te tuakana | Decision makers required to give due respect to all other living beings and the multi-dimensional impact of decisions upon them. Interact with the environment with some humility; not with the arrogance that assumes it is all there to serve purely human desires. |
Privileged/Confidential to Iwi Leaders Group 15032022
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TE REO O NGA PUKENGA | REFORM IMPERATIVES |
Ko te rauora te whainganui | Limit based decision making is inherently flawed, and moves away from a restorative, life sustaining ethos; try to embed measures around what is necessary, sufficient and able to be tolerated without disturbing balance rather than exploitation to breaking point |
Ko te apopo tetahi whakaaro mo tenei wa tonu | Intergenerational equity must be considered an intrinsic part of Te Oranga o Te Taiao |
He whakapapa ki nga mea ora katoa | Tangata whenua must be enabled to set strategic outcomes/visions for the taiao in their rohe, there should be cross-rohe co-ordination where appropriate, tangata whenua must be equitably included in all decision making |
He ao kotahi te taiao | The definition of ‘environment’ or ‘taiao’ must be wide-ranging, comprehensive and inclusive with an understanding of the impact of inter-connection and inter-dependency |
He utu mo nga mahi katoa | Understanding everything action (or inaction) as impact; defining up what should be considered in impact analysis, ensuring that impact analysis is not mono-cultural, but includes cultural/spiritual considerations |
Kei te whai orange te katoa | Ensure positive obligations on all decision makers/applicants wishing to utilise the taiao. Proscribe if necessary to ensure coverage of considerations is culturally appropriate/literate |
Privileged/Confidential to Iwi Leaders Group 15032022
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TE REO O NGA PUKENGA | REFORM IMPERATIVES |
Kei taka tetahi, kei taka te katoa | Ensure interconnection is a valid consideration for decision makers. Ensure that no one species or place is able to degraded beyond the point of recovery. Ensure restorative measures required of all utilising the taiao. |
Kei nga tangata whenua nga kete matauranga o te taiao | Tangata whenua as traditional knowledge keepers must be involved in setting policy, decision making and respected as experts within our own ecosystem. Mana whenua/hapu/iwi have the intimate knowledge of the taiao that can assist with hearing the voice/state of the environment and factoring that into decision making. A move away from the regulatory presumption that western cultures have a monopoly on ‘science’ as if that was absent from either the indigenous or other peoples of the planet. |
Kei nga tangata whenua te mana tiaki | Ensure hapu/iwi have entrenched rights to determine strategic policy direction and have the right to allow and/or prohibit activities within their territories. |
Kei te Kawanatanga te mahi ki te whakatinanahia Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Crown obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi to be reaffirmed. Crown obligations under existing Treaty settlements/arrangements to be protected. Crown not to reduce hapu/iwi to stakeholder status, not to offset our protected rights against other interests. Tiriti rights and interests do not yield on convenience or political expediency. |
RM Reform Progress
Kaupapa | Purpose |
Te Oranga o te Taiao | Still in the Bill, our team negotiating the wording and how it will be applied across the two new acts. This is key. |
Give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi | The wording is currently ‘give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi” which is a strong improvement. We are working on how this will be implemented across the system. |
Treaty Settlements | These are not being managed in an acceptable manner, and a key point for elevation. The engagement with PSGE’s as to upholding their settlements is too late and inequitable in application. The Crown has not done enough to protect Treaty Settlements nor enable space for those who have not yet settled, or lifting those with statutory acknowledgements. |
Governance for the Regional and Spatial Plans | The Minister will not give 50/50. He has currently only offered 2 positions of the potential 20, this is unacceptable. Each PSGE and PSGE’s in each region may like to require this as a key position when dealing directly with the Crown. For some THIS IS A BACKWARD STEP. |
National Advisory Group | We have opposed this group taking any power from hapu and iwi in place. The role and purpose of this group is being determined currently. If the group has a role in system oversight and some engagement into national policy direction, we will need to have clear accountabilities back to iwi and hapu. The membership of this group is still uncertain and another point to push to ministers that we are the Te Tiriti partner alone. We stress appointments must be made by hapu and iwi alone. |
Improvement across the system | This seems to be shaping up with indicators of our space across the system multiplying, we are now considering how this is resourced and how impactful this can be. |
Consenting and Allocation | Our key position here is to ensure that the RM reforms DO NOT impact our ability to negotiate FW rights and interests. In particular advocating for the creation of headroom, removing consents from those misusing them and having far more stringent review clauses and changed consent processes to ensure our early engagement for hapu and iwi. This seems to have had some progress. |
National Planning Framework | This is a crucial piece of work to ensure that what we want is locked in across the system and not at the whim of council determinations. It also sets how we will implement TOOTT and TOW. |
What we are proposing is landing in some places and not in others, the next section identifies what we are proposing
Three Waters Update
Three Waters Reforms
In October 2021, Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced the Government will create four publicly-owned water entities to manage delivery of water, wastewater and stormwater services in New Zealand
Entity A
4 Councils with approx. 45 iwi/hapū entities
Entity B
22 Councils with approx. 125 iwi/hapū entities
Entity C
21 Councils with approx. 55 iwi/hapū entities
Entity D
22 Councils with approx. 1 iwi entity
New entities to be established by 1 July 2024
How it currently fits together…
Proposed Governance Model
Objectives for the Crown/Māori relationship
Enabling greater strategic influence to exercise rangatiratanga over water services delivery.
Three Waters – Opportunities
There are a number of core transitions that will be required, supporting opportunities and outcomes for Iwi / Māori as a consequence of the reform:
Three Waters – Legislative update
Link to exposure draft Bill:
Context of the Three Waters Reforms
Government inquiry into Havelock North drinking water 2016
Three Waters Review 2017
Three Waters Reform Programme 2020
Taumata Arowai (new regulator)
Strengthened regulation in Water Services Act
Creation of four Water Service Entities (current phase)
Economic Regulator (current phase)
Indicative Transition Roadmap
Three Waters – Policy & legislative timetable
Policy development and Ministerial consideration of Economic regulation proposals | Legislative drafting | | | | | ||||
| | | CAB policy decisions | | CAB approves legislation | | | | |
| | | | | Bill introduced Submissions called | Select Committee deliberations Bill enacted by June | | ||
FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | TO SEPT | TO DEC | TO MAR | TO JUN | TO SEP |
| 7 Mar – WG Report | | | | 8 Oct - Local Govt Elections | | | | |
ENTITIES �BILL 1 |
ENTITIES �BILL 2 |
ECONOMIC REGULATION (LED BY MBIE) |
Official and Ministerial consideration of GWG recommendations | Legislative drafting | | | | | | | ||
| | CAB policy decisions CAB approves legislation | | | | | | | |
| | | Bill 1 introduced to Parliament and submissions called | Select Committee deliberations Bill 1 enacted by December 22 | | | | ||
Policy development and Ministerial consideration of Bill 2 policy positions | Legislative drafting | | | | | ||||
| | | CAB policy decisions | | CAB approves legislation | | | | |
| | | | | Bill 2 introduced Submissions called | Select Committee deliberations Bill 2 enacted by June 23 | | ||
Three Waters Reforms – National Transition Unit
Transition Information Pack which is available at: https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/three-waters-reform-programme-2021/$file/three-waters-transition-information-pack-january-2022.pdf has more information.
Next Steps
Te Mana o te Wai; Implementation Update
Next Steps