{"id":147291,"date":"2025-11-22T00:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T00:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/147291\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T00:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T00:32:07","slug":"left-with-no-choice-ngai-tahu-takes-government-to-court-over-conservation-law-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/147291\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Left with no choice\u2019: Ng\u0101i Tahu takes Government to court over conservation law changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The concession process, which is when permissions are given for activities on conservation land, is expected to be streamlined as part of the Government\u2019s plan to \u201cunleash economic growth on conservation land<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Planned changes include removing some concession requirements from the pipeline completely by providing exemptions or pre-approvals for certain activities. Concession allocations are also expected to become more competitive by shifting away from the current \u201cfirst in, first served\u201d approach. <\/p>\n

Under the proposal, the New Zealand Conservation Authority\u2019s decision-making powers would be given to the Conservation Minister \u2013 essentially providing Tama Potaka with sole decision-making powers over the conservation estate. <\/p>\n

Potaka said he had been advised Ng\u0101i Tahu was undertaking litigation around the proposed conservation reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not aware of the details and will find out more in due course,\u201d Potaka said.<\/p>\n

\"PrimePrime Minister Christopher Luxon and M\u0101ori\/Crown Relations Minister and Conservation Minister Tama Potaka at T\u016brangawaewae Marae. Photo \/ K\u012bngitanga <\/p>\n

\u201cThis Government is focused on driving clear, decisive conservation reform and ensure strengthened biodiversity and simpler, faster decision-making especially around concessions and greater revenue generation to reinvest into the environment.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tipa said the iwi wants the High Court to make a declaration that required the Crown to act in a manner that was consistent with the iwi\u2019s settlement and an acknowledgment the proposed reforms were inconsistent with those obligations. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about that concentration of power that the minister will have,\u201d Tipa told the Herald. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur settlement guaranteed dedicated seats on the Conservation Authority … these seats are not window-dressing but play a key role in decision-making about conservation lands. To diminish the role the authority plays removes not only Ng\u0101i Tahu from the decision-making table but the public voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Department of Conservation consultation document on the changes states \u201cTreaty settlements will be upheld\u201d but \u201cdecisions on how specifically this will occur are yet to be made\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"TeTe R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101i Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Justin Tipa. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Tipa said the legal action was \u201cnot a step that we take lightly\u201d. He highlighted a statement in the Ng\u0101i Tahu settlement deed that the iwi and the Crown agreed to enter into \u201ca new age of co-operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said under the coalition Government, \u201cin fact, we\u2019re regressing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I am really honest and share my frustrations, we do have reasonably good engagements [with the Government] but then it doesn\u2019t go anywhere and that\u2019s when I really have to question the integrity of this Government. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve offered our teams, we stand at the ready to help shape the legislation and offer thinking. We don\u2019t have our heads in the sand here, we\u2019re not closed to progress and we\u2019re not closed to new ways of doing things but anything that\u2019s to be changed, it must be done in partnership and it must be done with good faith and integrity.\u201d<\/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":"The concession process, which is when permissions are given for activities on conservation land, is expected to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4500,6745,1389,1887,1349,10808,266,98618,19136,8307,101,111,43,139,98615,7805,69,1523,29056,312,12177,98616,1120,4758,1361,61,38961,98617,102],"class_list":["post-147291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-changes","tag-choice","tag-conservation","tag-countrys","tag-court","tag-crown","tag-government","tag-iwis","tag-largest","tag-law","tag-left","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-ngi","tag-no","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-proposed","tag-says","tag-settlement","tag-tahu","tag-takes","tag-taking","tag-that","tag-to","tag-treaty","tag-violate","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147291","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=147291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}