November 06, 2020
Nosey Parker upsets Ruanui
Ngāti Ruanui is upset at a submission Attorney General David Parker has made in Trans-Tasman Resources’ Supreme Court appeal over its consents to mine off the coast of South Taranaki.
The submission points out that the provisions for assessing the crown’s Treaty of Waitangi obligations under the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act of 2012 are different to the Conservation Act, where decision makers are required to give effect to treaty principles.
Ngāti Ruanui chief executive Debbie Ngarewa Packer says it reads like Crown Law trying to shut down what could be a precedent-setting judgment.
"We are presenting to the Supreme Court all the matters relating to us under the Treaty of Waitangi, our Māori customary interests and the application of our tikanga to the marine activity. What I suspect we have is a bunch of cardigan brigade in Crown law sitting there saying here is the stock standard approach," she says.
Ms Ngarewa Packer says Attorney General Parker is taking a very restricted view of tangata whenua, and his submission seems to favour Trans-Tasman Resources.
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