June 27, 2016
Wai bottom lines raise doubt on good faith
Maori researchers are up in arms over a push by government officials to establish negotiating positions denying Treaty of Waitangi rights in water.
A cabinet paper on the Environment Ministry’s website shows it and the Ministry for Primary Industries are proposing bottom lines that nobody owns freshwater and there should be no national settlement favouring iwi or hapu over other users.
Law professor Jacinta Ruru from Nga O Pae o Te Maramatanga, the Maori centre for research excellence, says that would mean ignoring hundred of years of law around native title.
She says the Supreme Court, the Waitangi Tribunal, and the national policy statement on fresh water all acknowledge Maori rights and interests, but their nature and extent are still to be agreed.
"You know we had thought that the government had been working in good faith for many years in trying to find a negotiated settlement and a negoiated respectful solution here for Maori across the country," she says.
Professor Ruru says the paper seems to be an attempt to hamper the Waitangi Tribunal, which in April agreed to start stage two of its investigation into water.
PROFESSOR JACINTA RURU INTERVIEW
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