Māori Party MP Debbie Ngarewa Packer is cautiously optimistic a replacement to the Resource Management Act will be a plus for Māori.
Opposition from the Māori Party held up the previous National government’s attempts to rewrite the law, leaving current Environment Minister David Parker to finish the job.
He’s proposing a new Natural and Built Environments Act, a Strategic Planning Act and one covering actions to respond to climate change.
Ms Ngarewa Packer says the Māori party is concerned about the balance between protecting the taiao and ensuring its people can afford homes.
"He's basically proposing it will improve our natural environment and make it easier for us to develop and make sure it provides an effective role for Māori so those three kaupapa – housing, protecting our interests and the environment are massive for us so we will be crawling over it to ensure the changes are indeed going to be good for us as tangata whenua," she says.
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