Wednesday March 2nd

Environment Aotearoa 3 The LAWF Report




In the Report of the Land and Water Forum: a Fresh Start to Freshwater(2010) Bisley argues that iwi should deal directly with the crown before arrangements are made with local councils. The reasons for this are to do with variation in performance and criteria from one council to another. This is an example with parallels in many areas that have to do with space including communications, the foreshore and seabed and other areas. But it can mean that the Maori individual is displaced in the local setting and Bisley’s report should be read with Veronica Tawhai’s excellent analysis discussed last week in mind.
Bisley’s report is very important as it shows the wider context; water in New Zealand is now so important and so scarce in Canterbury now and elsewhere soon that allocation and costs for water are likely. Not only are the waterways threatenening to turn traditional Maori dwelling places into sewers as happened in the Hokio Stream area in the Horowhenua- this will be discussed next week- they are also starting to carry price tags, the effect on Maori remaining to be seen but able to be imagined.
There are two major developments that affect iwi and water in Aotearoa/New Zealand. One is the Coastal and Marine Bill and the second is found in the suggestions of the Land and Water Forum. The former looks at the seas around New Zealand and the second to freshwater on land. They both share an official concern for iwi rights. The introduction to the LAWF report talks about water as a matter of identity for iwi as iwi relate to locale.
The LAWF consists of 58 organisations reducing to a Small Group of 21 and a Plenary. In 2010 the LAWF produced a report and the next step is greater public engagement.
The LAWF does seem to be introducing a new regime for freshwater. There is a call for a national strategy with a guiding document to be known as the National Policy Statement. A non-statutory body a National Land and Water Commission is to be set up on a co-governance basis.
The critical thing is the strategy. Following the Report the strategy will involve more planning on a national basis with a dismantling of a first past the post process for water rights, a transfer system for water rights in accordance with market mechanisms.
The 2010 LAWF is written in something of a naïf style. Things that are blindingly obvious are considered with a childlike wonder. How could we possibly be going without water? And some of the thinking does seem to be naïve as with the discussion of trading water permits in the Executive Summary. The chance of background deals that do not involve a direct cash payment would seem to be high especially in areas like Canterbury where the water resource is limited and competition for such permits would be fierce. Iwi would be in the middle, so to speak of such competition.
Regarding iwi the LAWF report says in the Executive summary;
We have recognized that the relationship between iwi and freshwater is founded in whakapapa, that freshwater is recognized by iwi as a taonga of paramount importance and that kaitiakitanga-the obligation of iwi to be responsible for the wellbeing of the landscape including water and waterways- is intergenerational in nature and has been and may be expressed and even given effect to in many different ways.
This again is naïve. Bisley accepts the equation of Maori with locale blissfully unaware of the writings of Veronica Tawhai discussed last week.
Some of Bisley’s critique of the present situation is correct though. Later in the Executive summary the LAWF Report says;
Iwi, who have a Treaty relationship with the Crown, have no clear path to engage as a partner with Councils.
In fact AlistairBisley’s Report, for such the LAWF Report actually is, can be seen as a search for clear pathways of engagement for iwi with Councils and/or other parties interested in water. The Report is calling for early collaboration and this includes iwi. Bisley is very conscious that iwi are working things out with the Crown as changes are being made to water allocations and limits at the regional council level. In the Executive summary he takes pains to note that one process should not lose sight of the other.


Written by Peter Cleave

Hotaka
March 2
Wed
Te Ao Paho
Kaupapa korero mo te ra
Nga mea wareware
Rangahau
He aha nga mea wareware i te ao paho i te wiki o te Ruwhenua?
Subject of the day
The forgotten things
Analysis
What are the things that have been forgotten in the world of broadcasting in the week of the earthquake?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10709492