Bishop Chris; Parker DavidCHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you Mr Chair. I want to ask the Minister a question about clause 5 Tiriti o Waitangi" "All persons exercising powers and performing functions and duties under this Act must give effect to the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi." I want to know from the Minister what that actually means in practice because it's a change from "have regard to". "Must give effect to" is strong language and I want to know what the practical effect of that is going to be for communities trying to plan their regions.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Hopefully in the end it'll end up with less inconsistent practice across the country. When the Resource Management Act was passed the "take into account the principles of the Treaty" clause was intended according to the debates at the time to ensure a role for Māori within their area to express their views and have that properly taken into account. It didn't roll that way in practice and therefore as a consequence we've had a lot of complex and varied bespoke Treaty settlement arrangements including those passed by that member's party for the Waikato River Authority the Taranaki planning committee and for a myriad of other different formulations—and we would hope that there is less need for bespoke arrangements in the future.As to the meaning of it there's lots of jurisprudence around the Conservation Act. In reference to the meaning of "te Tiriti o Waitangi" it actually refers to in effect both versions of the Treaty—the te reo version and the English version.CHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you Mr Chair. I want to ask the Minister about clause 7 which follows on from "Tiriti o Waitangi". Interestingly the heading note for clauses 5 through 7 says "Tiriti o Waitangi and other matters" which sort of makes it out like clause 7 is just another matter which I think is an interesting form of phraseology. "Iwi and hapū responsibilities in relation to te taiao"—it does strike me that the breadth of this of this clause is large and worryingly large I think. "All persons exercising powers and performing duties and functions under this Act"—all persons—"must recognise and provide for the responsibility and mana of each iwi and hapū to protect and sustain the health and well-being of te taiao in accordance with the kawa tikanga (including kaitiakitanga) and mātauranga in their rohe or takiwā."Now I want to know from the Minister if he's concerned about the potential for judicial review as a result of the breadth of this clause. "All persons exercising powers and performing duties and functions … must recognise and provide for the responsibility and mana of each iwi and hapū". I've just read it out and members of the public listening can read it out for themselves and read it.The possibility of legal action to judicially review the people exercising these powers claiming that they are not recognising or not providing or they might be recognising and providing but they're not providing for the responsibility and the mana of each iwi to protect—which as we've noted in the Natural and Built Environment Bill debate has a particular strong meaning in resource management law—and sustain the health and wellbeing of te taiao in accordance with the kawa tikanga and mātauranga in their rohe or takiwā.Now the potential for judicial—Hon Scott Simpson: Intervention.CHRIS BISHOP: —intervention; Scott Simpson's right. Or at least it's not even so much about the judicial intervention; it's about the potential for judicial review to stymie the quite legitimate aims and aspirations of spatial planning I think is extraordinary. I do really worry Minister about this provision. I think we are going to see endless litigation and judicial review of this. So I just wonder if the Minister is also worried about it; and if he is worried about it what he's planning to do about it and if he's not why not?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): This clause as explained to me by officials is recognising the responsibility of iwi and hapū to protect the environment. The Māori world view is that they don't just have obligations to themselves; they have obligations to protect the environment and this is what that gives voice to."