TUWHARETOA MAORI TRUST BOARD MAAORI AFFAIRS SELECT COMMITTEE. Contact Address: P.O. Box 87 Turangi 3353, and P.O. Box 126 Taupo 3330.

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1 TUWHARETOA MAORI TRUST BOARD ~=_~,REC ES VE~D % 0 FES 20j09 MAORi SELECT AF,FA!RS COMMI"ITTEE MAAORI AFFAIRS SELECT COMMITTEE Waikato Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill Submission From: TUWHARETOA MA ORI TRUST BOARD Contact Address: P.O. Box 87 Turangi 3353, and P.O. Box 126 Taupo Contact People: Dean Stebbing (Advisor) or Rakeipoho Taiaroa (Secretary) RELEASED 1 1 MAR 2009 The Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board does wish to be heard in support of this submission. Introduction The Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board ("the Board") is the representative authority for the iwi of Ngati Tüwharetoa. mandated Lake Taupo and its rivers, tributaries and waters are significant taonga tuku iho (ancestral taonga) of Ngati Tüwharetoa. Ngati Tüwharetoa is linked by whakapapa to these taonga tuku iho. Through these familial links, Ngati T0wharetoa is committed and bound to protecting and nurturing the mauri of these taonga.

2 Ngati Tüwharetoa is recognized by the Maori Land Court as the ancestral owner of the Tongariro/Taupo region of the North Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand (by rulings of the Maori Land Court of 1887). The ancestral connections to these taonga are reinforced by the fact that the Board is the legal owner, on behalf of nga hapu o Tüwharetoa, of the beds of Lake Taupo and its tributaries. This ownership has been reconfirmed by deeds of ownership made between the Crown and Ngati Tüwharetoa in 1992 and most recently in The Board is also the legal owner (on behalf of hapu whose lands adjoin it) of the Waikato River extending from Lake Taupo to and inclusive of the Huka Falls (excluding the site of the Taupo Control Gates). This ownership is re confirmed in the deed signed by Ngati Tüwharetoa representatives and the Crown in General Position of the Board on the Waikato River Settlement and the Waikato Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill: The Board supports the settlement between the Crown and Waikato Tainui in relation to the Waikato River. In particular, the Board endorses strongly the overarching purpose of the settlement to restore and protect the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River for future generations. The Board supports the establishment of the Guardians of the Waikato River, the development and recognition of the Vision and Strategy and the new era of co management heralded by the settlement. The Board was actively involved, as a member of the Guardians Establishment Committee, in the development of the Vision and Strategy. The co management principles underpinning the settlement are also consistent with Ngati Tüwharetoa's general approach to its own relationships with the Crown and local authorities as reflected in both the arrangements regarding Lake Taupo and in the recent joint management agreement entered into between the Board and Taupo District Council.

3 The Board supports the Waikato Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill ("the Bill"). The Board considers that the Bill provides appropriately for the promotion and achievement of the Vision and Strategy which is in turn directed to overarching purpose of restoring and protecting the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River for future generations. The Board is also supportive of the co management opportunities included in the Bill which it considers are critical to the implementation of the Vision and Strategy and the achievement of the overarching purpose. The Board is engaged actively with the Crown in the development of appropriate and complementary co management initiatives for the upper Waikato River. Detailed Comments on the Waikato Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill: = The Board supports section 3 of the Bill, "the overarching purpose of the settlement is to restore and protect the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River for future generations". This is the foundation of the settlement and the underlying objective of the Vision and Strategy. Alongside the Vision and Strategy, this statement of purpose is integral to the Bill and the future of the Waikato River. g. The Board wishes to see the highest level of recognition for the Vision and Strategy within a local, regional, and national context. We are supportive of section 10 of the Bill as this elevates the status of the Vision and Strategy to an appropriate level across a range of Acts. However, we are not supportive of the current draft text of section 11, which we believe compromises the reach, power, implementation and potential enforceability of the Vision and Strategy. We believe section 11 as currently wording may hinder the appropriate application of the Vision and Strategy by, and increase the risk of confusion among, local and central govemment authorities who have duties to observe and implement this section. 10. We also observe that section 11 of the Bill seems incongruous with sections 9 and 10 of the Bill. Having provided the highest level of recognition for the Vision and Strategy through sections 9 and 10 in respect of certain enactments, section 11 then requires that people exercising functions and powers relevant to the Waikato River under a range of other enactments

4 (including the Resource Management Act 1991) need have no more than "particular regard" to the Vision and Strategy". This places the Vision and Strategy on a par with section 7 of the RMA which provides for "other matters" to which particular regard must be had, including, for example, the habitat of trout or salmon. 11. In contrast, the Board notes that section 6 of the RMA deals with matters of national importance that are to be "recognised and provided for". For example, section 6(a) of the RMA states that all persons exercising functions and powers under it, in relation to managing the use, development, and protection of natural and physical resources, shall recognise and provide for "the preservation of the natural character of the coastal environment (including the coastal marine area), wetlands, and lakes and rivers and their margins, and the protection of them from inappropriate subdivision, use, and development. " 12. It is the view of the Board that, having given the Vision and Strategy the status of a National Policy Statement and other high level planning statements in sections 9 and 10 of the Bill, the Vision and Strategy should be elevated in its 'weight' in section 11 of the Bill. In this respect, the Board notes that the wording contained in sections 12 and 13 of the Bill, which requires local authorities to expressly state how they have "given effect to" the Vision and Strategy in planning documents, is more enabling and verifiable and more consistent with a high level of recognition of the Vision and Strategy. 13. The Board therefore considers that the recognition for the Vision and Strategy should be at the highest level and that there should be greater consistency thoughout all of sections In this regard, the Board considers that this could be achieved if section 11 of the Bill (and, in particular, subsections2 and 5) is amended so that persons exercising relevant functions and powers under the other specified enactments must "recognise and provide for" the Vision and Strategy. 4

5 14. In this regard, the Board believes that a useful analogy may be drawn between the national importance of the Waikato River, recognised with the status of a National Policy Statement by the Bill, and the closely related matter of rivers and their margins that is deemed to be of national importance in section 6(a) the RMA (as noted above). Accordingly, the Board considers that a requirement to "recognise and provide for" should appropriately replace the current requirements in the Bill to "have particular regard" to the Vision and Strategy. 15. The Board notes that Schedules 3 and 4 of the Bill provide guidance on where costs will lie with the Guardians of the Waikato River and the Waikato River Statutory Board respectively (section 12(1) in both instances). The Board supports the Crown meeting the operational costs of each entity for two reasons. Firstly, in recognition of the national strategic significance of the Waikato River to New Zealand, and secondly, as the most certain means of both the Guardians and the Statutory Board being properly funded to get on with their business as it relates to the promotion of the Vision and Strategy. 16. While the Board supports the objectives and the strategies listed in schedule 2 to the Bill, it believes strongly, that this schedule would be improved by the inclusion of: (a) an appropriate timeline of implementation of each element, of and thereby each component in, each of the Strategies of subsection 2 of schedule 2; (b) (c) a correlative set of high level (possibly abstractive) milestones in terms of indicators, measures, or verifiable reference points, against each of the Objectives of the Vision, and a further (lower level) set of operational milestones referenced to the Strategies of the Vision; and a process to be followed by local and central government agencies, which allows them to utilise the proposals in (a) and (b) above. 17. Such additions will make it possible for all those engaged in realising and following the Vision and Strategy to have operational certainty, enabling greater day to day accountability. This would also enable concrete processes and expectations to be used to implement this important element of the terms

6 agreed between the Crown and Waikato Tainui which are of direct interest to the other partners in the co management framework, including Ngati Tüwharetoa. We also believe that a timeline and milestones will give commercial and recreational certainty to industry, farmers, electricity generators and other users of the river, and reduce the risk of conflict between such users and the agencies responsible for the River. 18. The Board has some experience of the fluidity and elasticity of land use change and compromises of water and soil quality, caused by historic and current land uses. We refer specifically to our experience of the degradation of the waters of Lake Taupo through eutrophication by nitrogen and nitrogenous compounds. Our experience informs us that land use change is a gradual, highly irregular process, and relies on a mix of instrumental and normative compliance measures being adopted and accepted in order to gradually improve water quality over a long, often protracted period of time. 19. Our recommendation in paragraph 16 above is informed by our view that owners and users of lands around lakes and rivers need certainty of both the time they have to alter their use of land and the time they have to introduce measures to further mitigate their impact on lands and waterways. Our recommendation therefore, is to encourage the Committee to examine means by which this Bill can give certainty of a need for change, while also ensuring that change can occur in a timely fashion. 19. The Board does not expect any provision of this Bill (or any process adopted in pursuance of it, or any phase of its implementation, or any outcome reasonably foreseeable pertaining to it) to impinge on the enabling or incorporation of Variation 5 of Environment Waikato's Regional Plan. We see progress towards the adoption of variation 5 as being quite separate to the impact of this Bill. Management plans which may be implemented to give effect to Variation 5, and any amendments made to it, may in time facilitate improved outcomes for the quality of water of Lake Taupo and, arguably, for the whole Waikato River. We would support any such plans and any amendments where they can add value to, or increase the impact of, the Vision and Strategy in this Bill

7 Conclusion 20. The Board supports the Bill but has suggested some amendments to strengthen the status of the Vision and Strategy. We believe the Bill introduces a new and appropriate era of co management, which is fundamental to the successful implementation of the Vision and Strategy and achievement of the overarching purpose of restoring and protecting the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River for future generations. Signed on behalf of the Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board: s si s.( Rakeipoho Taiaroa Secretary

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