NRC chair Geoff Crawford on some of his steeper land. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Northland Regional Council’s new chair says the principle of Te Mana o te Wai should be removed from the coalition Government’s new plans for freshwater management.
Te Mana o te Wai - which provides an underpinning basis for freshwater regulations - was introduced in 2020. It seeks to recognise the mana and mauri (life force) of water. It also encompasses the relationship between water, the wider environment and communities.
But chair Geoff Crawford said the Te Mana o te Wai principles that put the health of water above other needs of people or the economy would bring billions of dollars in extra costs for the current generation of landowners and should be removed.
Cabinet last week announced it is replacing the previous Labour-led government’s National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 (NPS-FM) with a new version, in a process expected to take up to two years.
The then-government in 2020 directed Northland Regional Council and its peers around New Zealand to have Proposed Regional Freshwater Plans which gave effect to the NPS in place by the end of next year.
Northland’s resulting draft Freshwater Plan has been controversial.
It played a significant role in conflict around the nine-member Northland Regional Council table that on November 28 boiled over and led to a quintet of right-leaning councillors overthrowing the council’s more left-leaning four - with Crawford installed as chair.
Crawford said Northland’s draft Freshwater Plan included having to fence off all of the North’s hill country land steeper than 25 degrees, to take stock off this area or have them there only with a resource consent.
This would hugely burden a single generation with what should be intergenerational work towards freshwater health, he said.
Removing Te Mana o te Wai principles would mean this steeper land fencing-off did not have to happen.
“Having to fence off land with a slope of 25 degrees or more is a bit steep,” Crawford said.
He said this aspect of having to fence off steeper land and exclude stock or get a resource consent to farm it in Northland’s new draft Freshwater Plan was the single biggest issue landowners were talking about at online and in-person meetings the NRC was holding as part of the public consultation on the plan.
“There was a woman in tears at one of the meetings, worried about how they were going to be able to afford this,” Crawford said.
Crawford said putting the health of water above human or economic values impacted all.
Crawford said the regional council would be continuing with its draft Freshwater Plan consultation, even with the government changes.
Consultation is continuing until the end of March.
He said there would however be changes to the draft Freshwater Plan’s content.
The regional council would be waiting to hear the details of the Government’s changes before working through how those might look.
“But we want to talk to as many people as possible to hear their views,” Crawford said.
He said it was good the Government had pushed the deadline for councils to have their freshwater plans in place to December 2027.
After the quintet’s election to power, the council cancelled the $750,000 it had been scheduled to put towards its draft Freshwater Plan.
Crawford said this money had been diverted from other environmental work to the plan but would now go back to the other work.
The Government’s move has brought a backlash from community and Māori leaders, and academics working across freshwater ecology and public health.
Fifty freshwater experts and leaders have urged the Government not to roll back New Zealand’s bottom-line standards for our lakes and rivers.
“To remove, replace or rewrite our country’s national freshwater policy at this time, so soon after it has been brought in, would be a terrible mistake,” they said in a just-issued open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Cabinet ministers.
“The progress made to date on national policies for freshwater, while still inadequate, are a major improvement on what we had and are a major progression to where most New Zealanders want us to be,” said the letter’s organiser, freshwater scientist Dr Mike Joy.
“This freshwater policy has involved a huge amount of work, collaboration and expenditure, and losing all that would be a huge backward step.”
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds said the Government was committed to improving freshwater quality for the benefit of all New Zealanders by ensuring a sustainable and balanced approach that worked towards improving the environmental outcomes for waterways.
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said the Government would develop a fit-for-purpose, enduring approach.
“The farming sector cares deeply about water quality, they take their responsibilities seriously and are committed to meeting environmental obligations,” McClay said.
■ Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air