Tribunal releases interim report on appointments to planning committees
The Waitangi Tribunal has today released The Interim Report on Māori Appointments to Regional Planning Committees in pre-publication format. The report addresses claims about arrangements for Māori representation on regional planning committees to be established under the proposed Natural and Built Environments Act (NBA) and the Spatial Planning Act.
The interim report is part of the ongoing National Freshwater and Geothermal Resources Claims Inquiry, which is looking into the rights and interests of Māori in relation to water and geothermal resources. The inquiry is being conducted in three stages. The stage 1 and stage 2 reports were released in 2012 and 2019 respectively. As preparations were underway for stage 3, the Tribunal agreed to hold a discrete priority hearing into claimant concerns about the proposed representation arrangements. The three-day-hearing took place at the Waitangi Tribunal Unit offices in Wellington at the start of August 2022. The application for a priority hearing came from the New Zealand Māori Council, which was concerned that the Crown’s proposed process was unfair and would favour post-settlement governance entities over other Māori groups. The Freshwater Iwi Leaders Group, urban Māori representatives, Māori landowners, and others participated in the inquiry.
The Crown proposed that, under the new resource management regime it has been developing, appointing bodies would be established (or an existing body could be selected) to appoint Māori members to regional planning committees. As a first step, iwi authorities and groups representing hapū in each region would self-identify and lead a process to select the appointing body or bodies. The selection process would be self-determined by the iwi, hapū, and relevant rights and interests holders, such as Māori landowners, in each region.
The focus of the Tribunal’s inquiry was whether the Crown’s proposal was consistent with the principles of the Treaty.
In its interim report, the Tribunal finds the Crown’s proposal that iwi and hapū should lead and facilitate the process to decide an appointing body is Treaty compliant at a high level of principle, noting that all the detail had not been decided at the time of the hearing. The Tribunal also finds the Crown’s proposal for a legislative requirement that iwi and hapū engage with their members and with relevant rights and interests holders, and keep a record of the engagement, is Treaty compliant at a high level of principle. Again, the detail had not been worked out at the time of the hearing. The Tribunal does not consider that the Crown should pause at this late stage and go back to full consultation with Māori about the details of the proposed appointments process.
However, the Tribunal is unable to reach an overall view as to whether the Crown’s proposed process is Treaty compliant. This is because the bespoke Resource Management Act arrangements negotiated through Treaty settlements and other processes still need to be transitioned into the new system, and those arrangements would potentially trump or even displace the proposed appointments process in some regions.
As the Tribunal finds the Crown has not breached the Treaty, the report makes no formal recommendations. However, it offers a number of comments and practical suggestions which the Tribunal urges the Crown to give serious consideration to.
The inquiry panel comprised Chief Judge Wilson Isaac, Dr Robyn Anderson, Ron Crosby, Dr Grant Phillipson, and Professor Sir William Te Rangiua (Pou) Temara.
The Interim Report on Māori Appointments to Regional Planning Committees – Pre-publication Version is now available to download in PDF format:
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