June 27, 2017
Huakina led way to better water management
Lawyers, judges, iwi and academics have gathered to mark 30 years since the Huakina judgement changed the way New Zealand manages water and the natural environment.
The case challenging the way councils were managing water quality was brought by the late Nganeko Minhinnick, who died earlier this month, and her lawyer was Sian Elias, who is now chief judge of the Supreme Court.
Former Waikato Tainui executive chair Rahui Papa says the symposium heard how arguments about the wairua and mauri of water set the scene for the changes in the Resource Management Act.
"(Dame) Sian Elias talked about her lawyer colleagues rolling their eyes and saying you can't measure wairua and you can't measure mauri and those Maori things, and now it's really commonplace so a lot of people think it's as a result of the RMA or various Acts but there was a lot of lead work in behind and the Huakina case was a landmark case," he says.
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