{"id":429104,"date":"2026-05-15T14:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/429104\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:56:10","slug":"ngai-tahu-preparing-to-renegotiate-parts-of-treaty-settlement-amid-major-conservation-law-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/429104\/","title":{"rendered":"Ng\u0101i Tahu preparing to renegotiate parts of Treaty settlement amid major conservation law reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many iwi have Treaty settlements that provide roles in certain conservation processes such as management planning and concession allocation. <\/p>\n

The Ng\u0101i Tahu settlement<\/a>, for example, provides for one iwi-elected member to sit on the national-level statutory body, the New Zealand Conservation Authority, and for the regional level conservation boards to consult with the iwi when considering certain policies and plans. <\/p>\n

The amendment bill reduces some of the powers available to conservation boards and the Authority. <\/p>\n

Ng\u0101i Tahu kaiwhakahaere Justin Tipa said the amendment strips power from the iwi \u201cby turning those boards and the Authority into advisors only and handing decision-making powers to the Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNg\u0101i Tahu was guaranteed a voice on the New Zealand Conservation Authority and conservation boards which currently hold decision making powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original Conservation Act includes a strong and broad clause that requires the Crown to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles. <\/p>\n

The new amendment bill adds a clause that provides ways to implement the original clause. <\/p>\n

Law firm Anderson Lloyd describes it as \u201ceffectively attempting to codify what is in, and what is out\u201d.<\/p>\n

The new bill requires the Crown to work with settlement organisations to seek agreement on how Treaty settlement redress would operate \u201cwith the same or equivalent effect to the greatest extent possible in the new system\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ng\u0101i Tahu\u2019s concerns centre on this wording and fears that \u201cthe greatest extent possible\u201d implies there may be some parts of the original agreements that might not be able to be upheld. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bill includes proposed arrangements to uphold Treaty Settlements, but it puts iwi in the position of being forced to renegotiate important parts of their settlements to fit within a narrow framework. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the new regime, where elements of a settlement do not fit neatly within that framework, the Crown would only be required to meet them \u2018to the greatest extent possible\u2019. In no world does that align with a \u2018full and final\u2019 settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said because the new bill will change the nature of things like conservation boards the Government will need to negotiate with iwi over the coming years to find agreeable solutions that are \u201cequivalents\u201d to what already exists. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t get something exactly the same, so we have got to work through [those issues] with iwi over the next couple of years, and until that time the iwi will continue to have someone on that board,\u201d Potaka said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome iwi will say we settled our claims on the basis of this RMA [the overarching legislation], now it is going to be something different we want a renegotiation of all the claims. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some people who are saying that\u2019s what we should do … what we are intending to do with the Conservation Act is actually work through something of equivalence, something very similar even though it might not exactly be the same and that I think is done in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tipa says Ng\u0101i Tahu is being forced back to the negotiating table which \u201cwill likely lead to long and costly disputes over what is or isn\u2019t equivalent for something we understood to be settled nearly three decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about protecting the Ng\u0101i Tahu settlement<\/a>. We are not seeking anything more than that. Put simply, the Crown needs to uphold its end of the bargain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tipa said the iwi were \u201cabsolutely up\u201d for the discussion of making improvements to the conservation system but \u201cthe commitments the Crown made through our settlement must be honoured\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned we will be spending time and money relitigating decisions and processes that are already established and well regarded, rather than focusing on what matters.\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":"Many iwi have Treaty settlements that provide roles in certain conservation processes such as management planning and concession…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[534,1389,1887,19720,59965,19136,8307,661,111,43,139,98615,69,1118,17711,10112,34293,8263,219883,312,12177,18746,18932,98616,61,38961,5977,1533],"class_list":["post-429104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-amid","tag-conservation","tag-countrys","tag-land","tag-landmark","tag-largest","tag-law","tag-major","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-ngi","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-parts","tag-power","tag-preparing","tag-reforms","tag-renegotiate","tag-says","tag-settlement","tag-size","tag-strip","tag-tahu","tag-to","tag-treaty","tag-which","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429104","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=429104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}