A kaupapa Māori environmental consultant says the coalition Government is letting bloody-minded discrimination overpower good sense.
Tina Porou says most farmers, councils, developers and communities support protecting water resources for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
She is one of the 50 leaders and experts to sign an open letter to the prime minister asking him to rethink plans to scrap the National Policy on Freshwater and its guiding principle of Te Mana o te Wai, which were the result of 20 years of hard work and negotiation.
“Any user in the country needs to make sure that they’re looking after the wellbeing of water first. You don’t have to be Māori to understand that – but the best way to describe it has come from mātauranga Māori… we know it best. And as a result I think that been a trigger,” Ms Porou says.
She says water quality is in a dire state nationally, and it won’t be fixed by returning to the policies that caused it.
