Fresh water management looms over tradeable rights
June 15th, 2009
The Govt aims to bring all interested parties inside the tent on water management this year. The Land and Water Forum, representing agriculture, industry, power generation, environmental and recreational groups will develop a set of options for fresh water. The process reflects what Environment Minister Nick Smith calls “a new style of collaborative environmental governance.” The reality may be trickier. Treaty obligations mean the Govt must negotiate with tribal groups such as Waikato-Tainui before establishing tradable water rights, permits or anything else able to be construed as the privatisation of waterways.
Settling on an allocation model means trade-offs between generators and farmers. It also means deciding whether to have a commercial trading allocation system, which Maori would want a piece of. If rights can be bought and sold, will a new system prompt a gold rush for water? A Cabinet paper from Smith and Agriculture Minister David Carter says, “there is some public apprehension about price-based measures or anything that resembles privatisation of water.” The paper recommends central Govt take a greater role in water management policy over local bodies.
The target date is April next year, giving the process time to feed into stage 2 of Resource Management Act reforms. Unlike the Auckland super city seats, the Govt has committed to a partnership with iwi over water management, which is likely to give Maori groups considerable sway over the basis for allocation. As the Cabinet paper notes: “The rights and interests of Maori in NZ’s freshwater resources remain undefined and unresolved. Discussions with iwi leaders may raise some challenging issues.”
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