Clendon David: Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClendon David: Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:694;Page:601. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID CLENDON (Green):Ko te mihi o te rā ki a koutou. I am pleased to take a short call on behalf of the Greens on this Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill. It is not an unusual bill but it is one that is not typical in the context of Treaty settlements. As we know of course it establishes a statutory body with equal numbers of tangata whenua and council appointees that will develop review and oversee the regional plans and regional policy statements for that area.We see this in a positive light. It is an expression of something closer to co-governance rather than simply co-management. Tangata whenua will take their rightful place at the position where key decisions are made and where the significant shape and scoping out of what this area this rohe will look like in the future will be decided. That is as it should be and that is entirely appropriate.It is fair to say that in an ideal world this bill would not be necessary. In a former life I was an academic and researcher around resource management planning issues and I know very well that in the late 1980s there was a long and quite deep conversation in New Zealand about land management planning and managing our natural resources. We had something of a muddle of legislation and town and country planning laws. Rivers were managed as if they had no relationship with land and vice versa. It was an entirely unsatisfactory and unhelpful set of rules regulations and indeed institutions that sought to manage land water and the environment generally.Out of that conversation in the 1980s of course evolved the Resource Management Act. Māori were active participants in the conversations and the development of the Resource Management Act. I think there was some sense of celebration that in the Act as it emerged finally in 1991 right up there in section 6 “Matters of national importance” it is required that everybody exercising power and functions under the Act should “recognise and provide for” among other things “the relationship of Maori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral lands water sites waahi tapu and other taonga:”. There is also the “protection of protected customary rights.” This is language we had never before seen in legislation of this nature and it was seen as a significant step forward.Similarly in section 7 persons exercising functions and responsibilities shall have particular regard to “kaitiakitanga:” and to the “intrinsic values of ecosystems:”. Kaitiakitanga of course is a uniquely Māori concept. It is a bundle of rights and responsibilities exercised by mana whenua. Intrinsic value is a Western concept that reflects very clearly the Māori notion that the whenua has an identity of its own in its own right irrespective of any identity we might place on it.Section 8 of the Act of course requires people to “take into account the principles of” Te Tiriti o Waitangi a somewhat weaker provision but nevertheless one that was rightly celebrated at the time.In a sense it is an unfortunate reflection on how the application and the implementation of the Resource Management Act over the 20 years - plus has wound out that indeed here in 2014 we are obliged to establish a stand-alone statutory body to ensure there is a strong Māori voice in decision making around resource management and around the future of the land the awa and indeed the communities. So I see this as a positive step but in a sense I also regret that we have taken so long. We have had legislation that potentially empowers iwi and hapū to be involved actively and in a very important and significant way in resource management decisions. I think we have collectively failed to maximise that opportunity—that potential—within the Resource Management Act provisions.Nevertheless this is as I say a good piece of legislation. I must reflect on the fact that my colleague Catherine Delahunty has today in fact been engaging and talking with the iwi authority of Ngāti Kahungunu. She is hearing some concerns voiced about the legislation and about the level of engagement with Kahungunu. I would hope that as this bill progresses that will be acknowledged and some of that put right. I am hearing this only second-hand but I am seeing my colleague Marama Fox nodding here—and her insight into Ngāti Kahungunu affairs would be significantly greater than mine—so one hopes that that oversight will be seen to as this bill progresses.On that point as I say I reiterate that the Greens are happy to support this legislation and look forward to ensuring that Māoridom has a rightful place in decision making in the Hawke’s Bay region. Kia ora.