{"id":115864,"date":"2025-11-03T16:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115864\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T16:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:40:14","slug":"maori-group-takes-freshwater-rights-fight-to-court-in-landmark-case-against-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115864\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u0101ori group takes freshwater rights fight to court in landmark case against Crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is not about ownership of the water but recognition that M\u0101ori were afforded certain rights to freshwater resources under the Treaty, which was backed up by English\u2019s assurance, and that those rights are not being honoured. <\/p>\n

\"KingiKingi Smiler, Wai Mana Whenua group chairman. Photo \/ Alan Gibson<\/p>\n

M\u0101ori hold an existential, spiritual and intrinsic relationship with water and have long called for the recognition of their freshwater rights. The case keeps alive an almost decade-long parley<\/a> between the Crown and M\u0101ori groups to address the issue and follows two Waitangi Tribunal reports. <\/p>\n

At present, the approach allocates freshwater according to which party files a complete application for resource consent first, which the group argues undermines the rangatiratanga of M\u0101ori. Rangatiratanga refers to chiefliness or the right to make one\u2019s own decisions to uphold one\u2019s personal status as an individual, wh\u0101nau, h\u0101pu or iwi. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomething needs to be done. The fundamental issue is that no Government had been prepared to change the allocation system of first in, first served, and that therefore grandfathers all those people that have those rights,\u201d Smiler said. <\/p>\n

Specifically, the group wants the court to rule that the Crown has failed to honour the 2012 assurances and issue an order requiring the creation of a scheme to protect M\u0101ori rights and interests before any further water allocations are made. <\/p>\n

The group says waterways their people once swam or fished in are now polluted and unable to be used by their grandchildren or any other New Zealanders. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll M\u0101ori have seen is how they used to collect kai [food] in their waterways and they have now been totally degraded. The Crown has taken a position that they can choose the land and use it for what they want and the fact the waterways are degraded and [this has] affected [other New Zealanders] doesn\u2019t have any particular interest to them.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"SirSir Bill English, pictured during his valedictory speech in 2018. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

At the heart of the applicants\u2019 argument is an affidavit made by English to the High Court in 2012, on behalf of the Crown, over the partial sale of state-owned power companies. <\/p>\n

English acknowledged M\u0101ori had rights and interests in freshwater and geothermal resources. <\/p>\n

This position was recorded in the Supreme Court in 2013 that recognition needed to \u201cinvolve mechanisms that relate to the ongoing use of those resources and may include decision-making roles in relation to care, protection, use, access and allocation, and\/or charges or rentals for use\u201d. <\/p>\n

In that 2013 case, one of the reasons the Supreme Court did not find against the Crown was because of the assurances the Government gave the court about action in relation to M\u0101ori water rights, saying it accepted \u201cthat it is not an empty exercise\u201d. <\/p>\n

The case continues in the High Court tomorrow, when the Crown is expected to present its evidence. <\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is not about ownership of the water but recognition that M\u0101ori were afforded certain rights to freshwater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,9092,1121,2841,1349,10808,15124,18791,8243,266,209,82457,78,59965,82456,2720,111,43,139,69,1523,52084,12718,1120,61],"class_list":["post-115864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-across","tag-against","tag-case","tag-country","tag-court","tag-crown","tag-fight","tag-fighting","tag-freshwater","tag-government","tag-group","tag-hap","tag-in","tag-landmark","tag-landowners","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-representing","tag-rights","tag-takes","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}