Clendon David: South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Clendon David: South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply) Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8507. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 I want to add just a few comments to those made by my colleague Eugenie Sage which clearly I endorse wholeheartedly. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes thank you Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch—this is a split call. It was interesting to hear Mr Little in his contribution earlier note that the Labour Party is supporting the South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Rural Water Supply Bill) but it is supporting it despite the process. A lot of the process issues underlie the Greens’ opposition to this bill as well as some of the inevitable outcomes associated with it. 
Consultation has been a major concern and I would remind us that we have now got 20-odd years of case law of precedent about what constitutes consultation through the Local Government Act 2002 the Resource Management Act and environmental law of all sorts. In consultation one of the key propositions is that consultation involves a statement of a proposal not yet decided upon listening to what other people have to say considering their response and then making decisions. Clearly that has not been the case in this instance. 
The comments from the member who just sat down Maryan Street are interesting. It is true that local iwi will be consulted on the process of alienating this or changing the ownership—the transfer process. That is a bit like completing the architecture and the construction of a home finishing the building and then offering people a right to be consulted on the colour of the house or the furnishing of it. The proposition we heard from Maggie Barry is that iwi generally are happy with this deal. There may be one iwi that is in support of it. I would point her to the submissions made from Parininihi ki Waitotara Incorporation who are seriously concerned about the likelihood of their income from leases in perpetuity being threatened by the passing of this legislation. 
I would quote from the NgatiRuanui submission: “As kaitiaki NgaatiRuanui opposes the South Taranaki District Council (Cold Creek Water Supply) Bill in its entirety.” That is a fairly obvious and clear statement of opposition from two significant Maori bodies—one iwi and a trust—in that area. According to NgatiRuanui the bill provides no regard to the ongoing protection of the water and its importance to the wider community that it serves. 
Not only is the iwi particularly concerned with its local interests with the admittedly quite contained concerns about this quite small scheme but it comments on the fact that it could represent a sea change if this bill is allowed to proceed which it seems inevitably it will. It may indeed set a precedent that allows land that is under claim where there are significant and very legitimate Maori concerns about ownership of land resources and in this case water to nevertheless be alienated into private hands despite the fact that it is currently under claim. There are serious and unresolved concerns from kaitiaki from iwi and hapu in this area. 
So for those and other reasons—the failure to acknowledge genuine democracy the precedent that it will serve and the failure of the process at many points—we will continue to oppose this legislation. Kia ora.