Smith Nick: Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Smith Nick: Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:619;Page:15299] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 I want to bring to the Committee’s attention a particularly important amendment that National is moving in this part. The amendment relates to the vital issue for the people of the upper Waitaki catchment of the commitments that were made to them at the time of the huge hydroelectric developments that took place there in the late 1960s and the 1970s. That community has seen huge changes in its landscape and in the use of its water. Both Ministers and politicians at that time gave commitments to that community of an allocation in today’s terms of 15 cubic metres per second of water for the purpose of irrigation. 
The course of the history of what happened after that is somewhat fuzzy. During the select committee stage members of the Local Government and Environment Committee questioned extensively just how it came to be that the 1969 Order in Council that promised that water for that community disappeared out of existence. There was a very complex legal set of the Water and Soil Conservation Act being repealed of the Resource Management Act coming into effect and of the resource consent applications that were lodged at the time by the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand—subsequently overtaken by Meridian Energy. Two things were clear through that process: firstly there was no deliberate decision by Ministers by Parliament or by the community of the Waitaki to surrender the water rights that were promised to the community at the time and second nor was there any deliberate attempt to lock up every drop of water in the Waitaki catchment solely for the purpose of electricity generation. 
 Today we challenge Parliament to put some justice back into what occurred then by supporting the amendment that is in my name. All that we are asking is that when the board comes to allocate the water in the Waitaki River it takes into account—it is not absolutely bound by it—the Order in Council of 1969 and the commitments given by Ministers of the Crown at that time to the people in the upper Waitaki River area. Members on the Opposition side of the Chamber believe we should support that amendment because it is good environmental lawmaking. All sorts of communities around New Zealand have very difficult and contentious issues when there are major developments as there were in the 1960s when the huge upper Waitaki scheme was built. It is very important that people can trust the word of Ministers. It is very important that when communities come together and do a deal people know that those deals will be honoured in the long term. That is why I call on this Committee to do the honourable thing and support that amendment. 
The Government wants to play games now—I have seen that in the media with regard to Jim Sutton and David Benson-Pope. They want to have an argument about the history of what occurred in 1991. I am not saying that we were flawless then; I am not necessarily saying that what was done was right. What I do say is that there is no record of Ministers deliberately taking away those rights to water. There was no deliberate decision of this Parliament or of any Government that all the water would be set aside exclusively for electricity generation. If we have any respect for good process then I invite the Committee to back that small rural community which has been disadvantaged by the outcome that has occurred since then. I challenge the member for Aoraki Jim Sutton and the member for Otago David Parker to note what the local people think. There is a choice as to whether the water of the Waitaki River—every single drop of it—will be used for generating electricity for the rest of the people of New Zealand or whether we will allow a tiny amount 2 percent of it which is what was promised to the people back in 1969 to be used for irrigation purposes. Do we think that the promise that just 2 percent of the water of the Waitaki River would be used for irrigation purposes is something that should be taken into account as this legislation comes into effect and as the water of that great river is allocated? 
I make a very honest plea to this Committee: let us do the honourable thing. Let us do the right thing for the people of the upper Waitaki catchment and let us do something to enhance the reputation of politicians Ministers and the Crown. A lot is said about honouring the treaty but what about honouring agreements with rural high-country farmers? What about making sure that when they have an agreement it is honoured? I call on the Committee to support our amendment.