Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I am very glad to have a call on the Natural and Built Environment Bill which is a great bill because this has been a long time coming and this reform is something that Minister Parker and the Ministers involved in this can be extremely proud of.From the beginning Cabinet since 2020 has been committed to an objective for these reforms being to give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to better recognize Te Ao Māori including mātauranga Māori. I am going to use my time today to clarify three of the objectives which were subject to much discussion in the committee of the whole House and in speeches that have been given today. They are first te Oranga o te Taiao; second Te Titiri o Waitangi clause; and third the National Māori Entity and its role.First let me take you to te Oranga o te Taiao. It was very simply summarised—and well summarised I thought—in the speech of Barbara Kuriger when she said basically if the environment is healthy the people are healthy. It's not complicated. And I appreciated that because I think that's something that all New Zealanders can understand and appreciate. Te Oranga o te Taiao is a concept drawn from Te Ao Māori and indigenous understandings of the environment but those are not at odds with the modern demands of how we must care for our environment.Upholding te Oranga o te Taiao is the purpose of this law. The concept has been deliberately developed to be an environmental ethic for all people in Aotearoa. Better recognising Te Ao Māori results in better outcomes in our planning system and for all New Zealanders. Te Oranga o te Taiao is defined in clause 3 of the bill and the definition reflects what the Resource Management Review Panel called the fundamental truth accepted in all communities—that the health and wellbeing of people is dependent on the health and wellbeing of the taiao.Some members raised questions about te Oranga o te Taiao being a new term in the legislation and that that would therefore create uncertainty. We've heard hyperbole from the other side today about the number of lawyers the many years tied up in litigation. But as the Minister David Parker dealt with in the committee of the whole House he said even if we had kept the old Resource Management Act (RMA) purpose clause this still would have been interpreted differently because this legislation creates a new planning framework. It would be unrealistic to create a new planning framework and then expect the courts to interpret the words in the same way. The idea that there can be significant resource management reform without the courts interpreting the words used whatever the words are is simply incorrect.The bill as discussed in the committee of the whole House provides clauses to assist with the clarity and certainty of te Oranga o te Taiao as well. I've heard questions from the other side of the House today about the way that the hierarchy works. The good news is that the bill is set out in a way which assists ordinary people to understand how to implement it. The purpose like the purpose of all pieces of legislation does not stand alone. Unlike the RMA the key means of achieving this purpose are coherently set out. This is in clause 3A of the bill.Upholding te Oranga o te Taiao will be achieved through these means in line with the approach outlined in King Salmon. There is a cascade of instruments that will progressively provide more detail on upholding te Oranga o te Taiao from the legislation to the national planning framework to regional spatial plans to plans.I also note that clause 3(2) of the bill sets out very clearly that upholding te Oranga o te Taiao must be achieved in a way which protects the health of the natural environment and that subject to this—subject to this—it must be achieved in a way that enables use and development of the environment. That is clear: there is a clear hierarchy of priorities. I want to underscore that the Ao Māori worldview does not see rigid distinctions between environmental protection and use of the environment and both are provided for in this legislation. As Minister Parker outlined in his speech protecting our environment and fostering responsible development are not mutually exclusive.Let me then bring us to Te Tiriti o Waitangi clause. I want to speak about how this clause is the same in both the Natural and Built Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill. It requires all persons exercising powers and performing functions and duties to give effect to the principles of Waitangi. You might be familiar with those words give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi" because they are what's used in the Conservation Act and they have been in effect in that Act since 1987. They are not new words to our court system and to the lawyers who use them or to the developers and people who use our natural environment. The give-effect weighting to the Treaty clause is important because it's been tested in the courts but it is a strong weighting and it sends a strong signal.The courts have said that "give effect to" simply means implement. On the face of it it is a strong directive creating a firm obligation on the part of those subject to it and the question is: why is that important? In over 15 reports of the Waitangi Tribunal they have found that the RMA falls short of the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and that Māori interests guaranteed under Te Tiriti are balanced out under the RMA. Importantly most submitters at every step of this nearly four-year reform have asked for a "give effect to the Treaty" clause. This is well-supported change and it will help ensure Māori interests are no longer balanced out in the resource management system. It's an important step forward for our system as a whole and I believe that it will deliver better outcomes for all New Zealanders.Let me then turn to my third point which is the National Māori Entity. It's the last mechanism that I wanted to speak about and it's an independent statutory entity. What's important to note here is that the entity doesn't take over the role of iwi hapū and Māori in the system nor is it a substitute for those relationships which already exist between the Crown and Māori. The role of the entity is to add an additional support for the roles of iwi and Māori provided under these bills. The mana of iwi hapū and Māori is not usurped by the entity. Its primary function is set out in clause 30ZH of the bill and its function is to monitor whether or not the resource management system is giving effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.The entity will develop and publish a framework for this monitoring function and regularly monitor those who will be required to give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti under the Natural and Built Environment Act and Spatial Planning Act. It's an important step within this process and when viewed with those first two things that I've spoken about. It's also an opportunity to support decision makers to continuously improve how they give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi because as we've experienced with the RMA the expectations of people change and our decision makers need to evolve their decisions too.In summary the bill provides important mechanisms for meeting the Government's objectives: that the reforms give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and better recognise Te Ao Māori. The new and improved roles for Māori provided by the bills support the roles in resource management that successive Governments have agreed with iwi and these are things that all Governments of all colours need to continue to support. These reforms will deliver real benefits for New Zealanders and that's why I'm glad to have had a call on this bill and to support it today."