Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Tēnā tātou e te Whare. I rise to give a call on the Natural and Built Environment Bill. We will also not be supporting this bill but not for the same reasons as the parties beside me.Te Paati Māori cannot support the Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms until changes are made to protect and restore our environment and guarantee the rights and interests of tangata whenua. Resource management is one of the most important areas of law especially to us as tangata whenua. What we have seen is that legislation of this significance should not be rushed. The Government must have the active consent of key tangata whenua.Instead what we have seen: key groups who have been asked to be engaged like the national Iwi Chairs Forum are urging caution and highlighting that the scale and pace of the reforms cannot be implemented on the ground. They also strongly reject the notion of a national Māori entity on the basis that it would undermine the rangatiratanga of hapū and iwi. While the Crown invited iwi technicians to the drafting process—and we compliment for that—we do ask: why did they refuse to release all sections of the bill to its Treaty partners prior to introduction to the House. Only when they signed confidentiality agreements could they get parts and then they were sharing it with their own people.This is not a partnership and this is an example of our concerns. Yes there are some improvements from the existing RMA but in other ways we're concerned that the bill is taking us backwards. Co-governance is only a step on the road to realising our rights as tangata whenua. These bills don't go far enough as far as we're concerned. Māori will be a minority on the crucial important regional planning committees rather than being able to exercise their rangatiratanga and kaitiaki leadership that is inherently our right. When it comes to the core purpose of resource management law the protection and restoration of the environment this bill is even worse than the existing RMA.These reforms only require a setting in environmental limits that we believe are preventing ecosystems degrading from their current state. This is despite the situation across many areas where maintaining ecosystems at their current state is not sustainable. So the current resource management regime at least requires sustainable management and environmental standards to reflect that safeguard. That's not what we're seeing projected here.It's clear to us that the new regime will favour developers at the expense of the natural environment which undermines the Government's own core objectives with these reforms: protecting and enhancing ecosystems. We are currently facing unprecedented biodiversity crises and the imminent collapse of many ecosystems integral to our way of life. To weaken baseline environmental protections at a time like this is a real worry.We note that the transition provisions provide for a slow roll-out across the country. This means the RMA and new legislation will operate side by side. This level of complexity will not be easy for mana whenua to manage. It also undermines unified systems across the country and proposed objectives for the reforms.So once again we believe mainstream interests are being catered for first and those protected by Article 2 of Te Tiriti come second. The Tiriti clause now uses the language give effect to" rather than "take into account" mirrors the Conservation Act 1987 is an improvement on status quo. But this still falls short from our perspective of requiring the Crown to honour Te Tiriti despite their precedent for that language in the Education and Training Act.Is this really the best the Crown can do in 2022? From our perspective no. We can do better and we hope you will. On an issue as important as this we think you should be striving for more cross-party support.From our perspective we will seek a range of amendments including setting environmental limits that require the restoration of ecosystems from their current state; holistic application of te Oranga o te Taiao including cultural and social determinants; increasing Māori appointments on regional planning committees so that they make up at least half of the committees; change and give effect to Te Tiriti to honour and implement Te Tiriti; express explicit acknowledgments of the articles of Te Tiriti—rather than the principles—and of tino rangatiratanga; and removing reference to the national Māori entity in favour of reference to accountability and oversight of structures that are determined by the national Iwi Chairs Forum and National Urban Māori Authority.Our hope is that the Government is willing to work with us to set stronger environmental limits and ensure the framework gets consents from tangata whenua so that we will be able to support this bill into law. We look forward to ongoing discussions at the select committee and beyond. Kia ora koutou."