November 22, 2022
RMA reforms skip decolonisation
A Māori constitutional scholar is skeptical of promises Māori interests will be better served through the proposed replacements for the Resource Management Act.
Victoria University of Wellington senior law lecturer Carwyn Jones says Māori are likely to see the economic and development interests of others given higher priority than their own.
He says any protection for Māori interests relies on government-established bodies rather than the mana of hapū-iwi – as promised by Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
“One of the things that it doesn’t recognise is that part of the process is decolonisation. We’re seeing where kaupapa Māori organisations take a lead and that actually undertaking that work of decolonisation is really effective” he says.
You know one of the things that it doesn’t recognise is that part of the important part of the process here is actually decolonisation. And we’ve seen where kaupapa Māori organisations take a lead, that undertaking that work of decolonisation is really effective]
Carwyn Jones, says while he sees good things in the proposals, he fears economic and development interests, inevitably, will get more weighting than Māori rights and Treaty interests.