Speech: Katene - Environment Protection Authority Bill
te-pati-maori
Fri May 06 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Speech: Katene - Environment Protection Authority Bill
Friday, 6 May 2011, 10:42 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Environment Protection Authority Bill – committee stage
Rahui Katene, Environment spokesperson for the Maori Party
Thursday 5 May 2011
As I prepared for this debate today, I glanced at an epanui newsletter that suddenly landed in my inbox.
It was a newsletter from the Commission for Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy, chaired New Zealand’s own environmental expert and indigenous leading academic, Aroha Te Pareake Mead.
The newsletter was headed with a statement of vision:
“A world where equity is at the root of a dynamic harmony between peoples and nature, as well as among peoples”.
There wouldn’t be a better model out there, to demonstrate the meaning of these words, than the global conference held by this Commissioner earlier this year.
The Sharing Power conference was a unique partnership between Te Runanga o Ngati Awa, Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi; the International Union for Conservation of Nature; and participants from right across the globe.
Mr Speaker, we come to this Environment Protection Authority Bill absolutely committed to the ideal of “A world where equity is at the root of a dynamic harmony “.
There is absolutely no question that we needed to uphold a commitment to this ideal, when considering the matters of national significance that this Bill – and this Authority must deal to:
• Such as issues called in under the RMA 1991
• The functions inherent in the Environmental Risk Management Authority under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996;
• Or some other function such as the Emissions Trading Scheme under the Climate Change Response Act 2002.
•
What’s more, from the point of view of tangata whenua there is a lot at stake. All of the consultation has promoted the need for:
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Maori representation on decision-making boards to be increased to at least two representatives
The establishment of a statutory Maori advisory committee
The committee should not be seen as a substitute for local iwi engagement and
Iwi had a clear preference that the EPA be established as a stand alone Crown Agent.
Mr Speaker, I’m not going to dwell further into the detail of implementation other than say that we in the Maori Party were concerned to ensure the balance; the equilibrium of so many competing priorities.
We believe we have achieved this balance with two simple amendments to clause 3; which state that :
In order to recognise and respect the Crown’s responsibility to take account of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and to maintain opportunities for Māori to contribute to decision-making under an environmental Act, Part 2 of this Act establishes the Māori Advisory Committee.
All persons exercising powers and functions of the EPA under an environmental Act shall apply any Treaty of Waitangi provision in that environmental Act.
We believe these two new clauses give effect to the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi in a way which will recognize and respect the responsibility of the Crown to do the right thing.
These clauses do not interfere with any of the specific Treaty provisions in the environmental acts such as the Resource Management Act 1991; the Hazardous Substances and new organisms act 1996; and the Climate Change Response Act of 2002.
They should not create interpretation difficulties or increase the risk of a judicial view.
We appreciate the support of the Minister and his officials in helping us to come to a meeting point where we could agree on a mechanism to actively protect Maori interests, and to give effect to the principles of the Treaty.
We hope it will also meet favour with other parties across the House.
ends
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