January 25, 2016
Council frustrated at water secrecy
The Northland Regional Council wants to know the Government will deal with Maori rights and interests in its reform of freshwater management.
Chair Bill Shepherd says councillors are concerned at what seems to have been a shift over the past year from the Government’s baseline position that no-one owned freshwater, there would be no generic share of freshwater resources provided to iwi and there would be no national settlement of iwi/hapu claims to freshwater resources.
He says an extraordinary meeting of the council in Whangarei on Friday decided it wants the Crown to continue acting as kaitiaki of the nation’s freshwater on behalf of all New Zealanders.
Councillors also reaffirmed their support for the regional council sector’s continued role of managing freshwater under the current statutory processes, which include involving community participation.
Mr Shepherd says any reform needs to serve the collective best interests of all Northlanders, including Maori.
Meanwhile, Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce will tomorrow announce the objectives of the government's freshwater science challenge that will set the research funding direction for the sector.
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