The National Government is currently conducting “The Constitution Conversation”; a review of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements (“review”). The review originates from the 2008 Confidence and Supply Agreement between the Māori Party and the National Government. This review is significant as it calls for public submissions on how we want our country to be run, and includes an inquiry into the role of the Treaty of Waitangi in our constitutional arrangements.
Early last year, the Māori Council filed an urgent claim with the Waitangi Tribunal seeking a recommendation that the Crown not proceed with the proposed partial sale of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). After the hearing had been split into two parts, one urgent stage and one second stage full review of Māori interests in water, the Tribunal’s urgent response in August 2012 concluded that Māori have interests in water in the nature of ownership.
On 4 February 2013 the Waitangi Tribunal released the Wai 45 Ngāti Kahu Remedies Report (“report”). The report is focused on an application to the Waitangi Tribunal by Ngāti Kahu for binding recommendations or remedies, to the Crown to redress prejudice that it has caused Ngāti Kahu. The Inquiry and report are significant for Māori claimants and other interested parties as it is one of a few instances where the Tribunal has fully considered its unique jurisdiction to make recommendations which are binding upon the Crown in the context of the current Treaty claim landscape.
How to determine ownership of water has recently become a highly controversial and much debated topic. Indeed, the media has largely focused its reporting around the question: can water be ‘owned’, and if so, how should we determine who is entitled to it?
In recent weeks, the media has revelled in a very public debate about Māori rights to water. Do Māori have rights to water? If so, who should determine the rights and how? And perhaps most importantly for some, how will such rights affect non-Māori?