Well of course they do – all New Zealanders have an interest in freshwater. But do Maori have an interest in water which is in some way different from the interest which all other New Zealanders have? That is the issue which is now being discussed, for the most part behind closed doors.
The Prime Minister asserts that in his Government’s view nobody “owns” water. But he has also said, and his view has been echoed by both Bill English and Nick Smith, that the Crown accepts that iwi do have special rights and interests in water.
A PowerPoint presentation issued by the so-called Freshwater Iwi Leaders’ Group in August claims that earlier in the year Cabinet acknowledged these special rights and interests. That document goes on to outline that the objective of the Group is to seek a major say in the way water is allocated, catchment by catchment. And that is already happening, with, for example, agreement to give Ngati Porou substantial say in the allocation of water throughout the Gisborne region.
On 6 August, the Iwi Chairs Forum and Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) signed a memorandum of understanding by which LGNZ “acknowledges the mana and kaitiakitanga status of iwi over the nation’s land and natural resources”.
But what gives somebody who has a Maori ancestor some kind of preferential interest in water as compared with somebody who does not have a Maori ancestor? The Waitangi Tribunal may assert that Maori have a special interest in water, but there is absolutely nothing in the Treaty of Waitangi which implies such a preferential right. Indeed, Article III of the Treaty made it unambiguously clear that all Maori were to have the rights and privileges of British subjects – no less but certainly no more.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Government is seeking to avoid the political opprobrium of giving iwi special rights over water, while allowing those rights to be locked in, in perpetuity, catchment by catchment. It’s well past time to make it abundantly clear that no racial group should have preferential access to water.
Copyright © 2024 Don Brash.