In an election year any hint of Māori gaining an
advantage is blood in the water to a number of political sharks who can be
relied upon to go into a feeding
frenzy over it.
Generally it’s Winston
Peters who takes the first and choicest chunk. But on the issue of Cultural
Impact Assessments by Māori on resource consent applications, Winatana’s
been beaten to the bite this year by Labour’s Shane Jones who is quoted
as saying, “As someone who was involved in the core
group which wrote the Resource Management
Act in 1988-1989 never in our wildest dreams did we imagine it would lead
to 19 new consent authorities over the Tamaki Makaurau
area.”
No. I don’t suppose he did. Nor do I suppose his tūpuna dreamed that their
signing of Te
Tiriti o Waitangi would lead to one unitary
authority over the same area, let alone one whare nui over
the entire country. Such are the ironies
of the law
of unintended consequences.
But back to the actual issue currently exciting media attention – what
the New Zealand
Herald calls the Māori
veto on water. Here are the facts.
Under laws passed by Parliament,
not Māori, resource consent applicants must have approval from one or more
local authorities. Since 1991, in order
to get through the red tape involved, applicants have had to provide two kinds
of assessments; an assessment
of environmental effects (AEE), and a cultural impact assessment
(CIA).
For more than three decades consultant planners, surveyors, architects,
lawyers, arbourists, landscapers, etc, have been successfully selling their
skills to applicants as consultant. You name the AEE
mahi needed and there will be a consultant willing and able to do it for you - for a price.
Makes sense. If you don’t know how to do what’s legally required, then you pay someone who does know, and they do it for you.
Makes sense. If you don’t know how to do what’s legally required, then you pay someone who does know, and they do it for you.
For the same length of time that all these AEE consultants have been
doing their thing, whānau hapū and iwi consultants have been carrying
out CIAs for applicants.
Makes sense. They are the rangatira with mana whenua who kaitiaki in their rohe. If you don’t know what’s where, and why and how it all inter-relates, then you pay those who know to do it for you.
Makes sense. They are the rangatira with mana whenua who kaitiaki in their rohe. If you don’t know what’s where, and why and how it all inter-relates, then you pay those who know to do it for you.
On the
face of it there should be little difference between the consultants working on
AEEs and those working on CIAs. However
there is a difference and it’s not a little one. It centres on payment for services.
Since 1991, Ngāti Kahu hapū have done literally thousands of CIAs for various applicants. Until recently they would provide applicants with their schedule of very modest fees, and then send them an account after the CIA had been produced. Yet in three decades, while AEE consultants have been minting it with nary a murmur from applicants, media or politicians, Ngāti Kahu hapū and iwi have collectively received less than $1000 in payment between them for all their CIA mahi.
Since 1991, Ngāti Kahu hapū have done literally thousands of CIAs for various applicants. Until recently they would provide applicants with their schedule of very modest fees, and then send them an account after the CIA had been produced. Yet in three decades, while AEE consultants have been minting it with nary a murmur from applicants, media or politicians, Ngāti Kahu hapū and iwi have collectively received less than $1000 in payment between them for all their CIA mahi.
How about getting into a frenzy over that rort Shane?
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