Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Mōrena. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. It's a pleasure to rise on behalf of Te Paati Māori to speak in the special debate on the Natural and Built Environments Bill exposure draft. There's much to like about the bill in respect of its overall direction and recognition of tangata whenua and Te Tiriti. In saying that there should be explicit acknowledgments of the articles of Te Tiriti rather than the principles and of our tino rangatiratanga.The greatest challenge will be how the overall positive direction manifests itself in the remainder of the bill yet to be drafted and the operational delivery through new planning instruments. It is essential that hapū and iwi are positioned in meaningful partnerships with central and local government. Te Paati Māori notes that often the failure of the current system was not the Resource Management Act (RMA) itself but rather the delivery of the RMA through councils' plans. The RMA has been held up as all that is wrong with our environment consenting regime when plans today still largely reflect the structures of the plans and mechanisms you can find in controls that existed prior to 1991. Ensuring the purpose of the bill is carried through to all parts of the bill will be crucial. That means a consistent partnership approach to decision making and protection of the environment. It is critical that the effect" clause means equal partnership in decision making. A partnership must have true meaning and not mirror practice that currently exists where iwi and hapū may be invited to engage.We support the precautionary approach; however this should also apply across the whole framework and be aligned with Te Oranga o te Taiao as set out in proposed clause 5. Decision making at the national and regional level must include at least 50 percent tangata whenua to reflect the purpose of the bill in partnerships enshrined within Te Tiriti. Iwi must be able to make their own appointments that clearly reflect takiwā boundaries. The relegation of iwi to be no more than an "engaged party" appears too often in the words used in this exposure draft and various discussion documents. The aims of the reforms are not supported by the action of future decision-making as set out. We don't support the final decision for the national planning framework resting with the Minister for the Environment as this provides no check or balances on the executive. A greater level of scrutiny we believe is required. It is shameful that the 50 percent governance is not proposed for plan development. This is a huge failure and will undermine any support for the new reforms leaving local government to effectively continue along the same line or the same path region by region which defies the aims and principles we believe that are set out. The current mana whakahono system has provided no significant change for mana whenua in the resource management space. It is unlikely an enhancement of this redundant system will help. In fact trying to enhance this mechanism looks like an additional window dressing to make it look like Māori are being given a clearer or greater role but there is nothing in it to convince us of this. There also needs to be significantly more work done on clear signalling of when hapū and iwi may be consulted on or notified for consents.In closing the Government still has a lot of work to do alongside tangata whenua to get this draft to a point where it can be progressed. Te Paati Māori are hopeful that we may be able to support this bill as this is the most significant reform of environmental law in decades. But that is also precisely why we cannot get this wrong and urge that as rangatira and kaitiaki of Aotearoa tangata whenua must have our decision-making rights honoured. Anything less will fly in the face of our nation's founding document—Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Nō reira tēnā tātou katoa."