Ryall Tony: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5531] 
Hon TONY RYALL (NZ National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I want to draw to the Committee’s attention tonight the fact that at the same time as we are debating this bill the Government has announced that the Historic Places Trust will receive another $4.5 million of funding for the identification of wahi tapu. I alert the Committee to what happened with wahi tapu in Welcome Bay in my electorate. On 180 hectares of land on the hills of Welcome Bay four families have been making their living and planning their futures. They discovered that the Historic Places Trust had entertained an application from local Maori to have 180 hectares of their land declared wahi tapu. There was a flawed and totally inadequate consultation programme by the Historic Places Trust and as a result those four landowners found that wahi tapu was registered on their property. 
The consequence of wahi tapu worried those people. They sought dealings with the council from which they got the very clear impression that wahi tapu would limit any ability they had to use their land. As a result the Leader of the Opposition and Dr Nick Smith held a public meeting in Welcome Bay which 300 Tauranga residents attended. What became clear was that there was real concern about wahi tapu. It got to the stage of becoming a national issue and the Prime Minister made the comment that statutory protection for wahi tapu could come only from a district council listing as under the Resource Management Act. She said it was up to the council to decide. But at the same time as she was saying that on nationwide television she was in the Cabinet room passing a bill through the Cabinet process that will have wahi tapu declared a matter of national importance. According to the Resource Management Act what that means is that if a matter is of national importance the decision-making authorities shall “recognise and provide for those matters”. That means that if someone has wahi tapu on his or her land it is a matter of national significance and it overrides what the council’s plans say. It becomes a matter of national importance that the authorities must recognise and provide for. 
So what is the consequence of that for the people of Welcome Bay? What it means is that when they thought they would now be covered by the district plan and could chop down the trees harvest the forest build the house and add to the garage—as they could under the district plan—all of that was out of the window. The Prime Minister’s pledge that it would be the council that decided has been found to be a nullity. As the Prime Minister was on the  
Holmes 
 show saying that it was the council’s district plan that would be predominant she was in the Cabinet room shepherding through a bill that makes wahi tapu an issue of national significance and importance and that means it overrides what the council says. That has really big consequences. 
I cannot understand why the Government wants to set the spa-pool liberals of the Historic Places Trust upon the landowners of New Zealand with another $4.5 million of the taxpayers’ money to identify wahi tapu around the rest of this country. We will end up with the outrageous situation where 180 hectares of land has been declared wahi tapu in Welcome Bay and now with the progress of this bill the council’s views will be completely overriden and the wahi tapu will determine the future use of that land—not the landowners operating under the district plan. It will be the local Maori who decide what happens and that is not right.