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Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says the National Government has pursued a deliberate policy of slowing down Maori claims to water while it allocates the resource to its supporters.
She says the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to hold hearings in September after three years of stalling by the crown is a chance to get the issues squarely on the table.
Ms Turei says at one of his first meetings with iwi leaders, Prime Minister John Key extolled the potential value of water experts to the New Zealand economy, but iwi and hapu still have no certainty about the role they could play.
"In the meantime we've had irrigation subsidies to farmers so farmers get access to it. We've got companies who can buy land and extract water out of the ground and sell it overseas and pay virtually nothing for it. Government's intention and their actions have been to allow everybody else to have access in decisionmaking over fresh water and keep iwi and hapu locked out through process," she says.
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