NPM Urges Cabinet Not To Adopt Ministry Advice   24 Jun 2016

NPM Urges Cabinet Not To Adopt Ministry Advice

The Ministry for the Environment and Ministry for Primary Industries are currently seeking Cabinet’s agreement to adopt a bottom line position that nobody owns freshwater and that there should be no national settlement favouring iwi/hapu over other users.

Nga Pae o te Maramatanga (NPM), New Zealand’s Maori Centre of Research Excellence cautions Cabinet against adopting this advice.

“This notion that no one owns water is completely untested in New Zealand law, and to jump to a conclusion that water cannot be owned is potentially contrary to the essence of New Zealand law. Such a position would go against what the Supreme Court and existing Cabinet papers already accept: that Maori rights in law to water are unascertained” says NPM Co-Director and Professor of Law Jacinta Ruru.

The Waitangi Tribunal is the only institution to look at this issue in depth, and has already found that Maori have residual proprietary rights in water protected by the Treaty of Waitangi. Professor Ruru explains that the common law doctrine of native title – a doctrine that protects Indigenous peoples’ existing property rights despite a change in sovereignty – certainly has the capacity to be relied on in the courts to establish that specific hapu do continue to own water.

“Iwi, hapu and whanau have been working with the Government in good faith these past years on the understanding that the Government is seeking to honour the law and the Treaty in negotiating respectful solutions to water ownership, governance and management” says Ruru.

Nga Pae o te Maramatanga urges Cabinet to not accept the Ministries’ position on this issue and to continue respectful negotiations with Maori to find enduring solutions that honour the Wairua and Mauri of waters in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Nga Pae o te Maramatanga (NPM) is a Centre of Research Excellence hosted at the University of Auckland comprising 21 research partners and conducting research of relevance to Maori communities. Our vision is Maori leading New Zealand into the future. NPM research realises Maori aspirations for positive engagement in national life, enhances our excellence in Indigenous scholarship and provides solutions to major challenges facing humanity in local and global settings. Visit www.maramatanga.ac.nz

ENDS

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