Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simon Court: RMA Reform Parliamentary Under-Secretary on the scrapping of iwi-council deals under new reforms

Transcript

Simon Court: RMA Reform Parliamentary Under-Secretary on the scrapping of iwi-council deals under new reforms · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The way we talk to council about their treaty rights
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is changing under new RMA law changes. The government wants
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to bring in existing Mana Fuke agreements, the old ones
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: being ripped up. They'll get replaced by EWE participation agreements,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: which recognize treaty settlements with the EWI. They give EWE
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: participation rights. Basically, they're voluntary things and practice. What does
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: this mean in a council's spatial plan? The law says
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: council should map areas that are significant to MALDI, like
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: pass sites or like burial grounds. The law requires these
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to be protected and under this they would be. Simon Court,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: as Parliamentary Undersecretary to the Minister for RMA Reforming, is
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: with me this morning. Simon, good morning, Good morning Ryan.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Why did you have to get rid of the old agreements?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Well, the problem is we had provided for some existing
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: ones potentially to transfer over into the new system. But
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: what happened was a whole bunch of councils EWI and
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: HAPU decided they were going to stand up a whole
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: lot of new agreements before the new system takes effect.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: And Chris Bush and I looked at that and said, well,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: these are not going to fit there out of scope.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: The Northland Council one, for example, says that Northland Council
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: doesn't or Northern Council agrees with Napoli that they never
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: said a sovereignty to the government. Now you can't have
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: councils making agreements with different ewi where they don't even
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: agree the government makes the law. So we've said that's
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: not coming from the RMA. We're going to put a
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: hard stop on that, and we're going to set up
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: a new system of consultation and engagement which essentially fulfills
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: the Crown's treaty obligations in a way that has clear guardrails,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: so it can't be gained by councils and other groups
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: in the future.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: How does this the old ones, Well, I mean, what
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: is whether someone setting sovereignty to the crown or not
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: got to do with the relationlationship between an EE and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a council. Wouldn't that be something that an EE we
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: would raise were a government.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Well, the problem is in twenty seventeen the RMA changes
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: agreed to between National and the Maori Party were so
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: wide open that just about anything could be in an
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: agreement that's simply supposed to be about planning matters. In
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: other words, as you pointed out, where are the sites
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: of cultural significance to Mai, where are wah tapu or
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: burial grounds? But that's not how it went. In some
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: cases there was a shift from general consultation or making
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: sure counsel had the right knowledge to co governance and
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: co co management models. There were expanded roles and appointments,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: and ratepayers were funding a lot of this participation in
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: a way that is unacceptable to most ratepayers. What we've
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: seen in Northland is essentially a revolt by one councilor
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: at least a venus Smolders who's an act counselor up
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: there in Norfolk, pointing out that none of this is
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: necessary in order to make sure that we know where
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: the special sites are and to give effect to the
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Crown's obligations when it comes to treaty settlements.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: All Simon Court, Parliamentary Undersecretary to the Minister for RMA Reform.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: to news Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.