Latest news with #NgātiWaewae
Otago Daily Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Iwi leader rebuts claims of consent power grab
Ngāti Waewae leader Francois Tumahai has rejected claims that a revamped iwi agreement with the West Coast Regional Council gives Māori too much say in planning and resource consents. The regional council has reworded more than 20 clauses in its Mana Whakahono a Rohe partnership document with Poutini Ngai Tahu, mainly to clarify how it will work in practice. Former chair Allan Birchfield, who signed the original document in 2020, has strongly criticised the new version, saying it puts iwi on the same governance level as the council. 'I am voting against (the amendments) because they will give iwi full control of the Council's consenting and compliance role under the RMA,' he told yesterday's council meeting. Mr Tumahai, one of two iwi reps on the council, says Mr Birchfield is deluded. 'He's had it explained to him, but he won't listen. Every other councillor has supported the changes but he has his world view, and he won't change it,' the Ngāti Waewae chair told Local Democracy Reporting. The agreement spells out how staff will involve manawhenua in resource consenting - a requirement under the Resource Management Act (RMA). 'The council will treat Poutini Ngāi Tahu as an affected party for all applications … where there is potential for adverse cultural effects, unless it is demonstrated otherwise,' an expanded clause says. Council staff would decide if adverse effects were likely by talking to the environmental agencies of the region's two Rūnanga, Poutini Ngai Tahu partnership manager Ashley Stuart said. A new clause in the agreement says the council will also 'strongly encourage' people applying for resource consents to talk to manawhenua themselves early on, through the iwi's environmental consultancies. Without a letter of approval from the iwi, the council will treat the consent as 'limited notified', adding potential costs and delays. Ngāti Waewae's environmental agency was already issuing at least one letter of approval a week to people checking in over resource consents, Mr Tumahai said. The council held back three of the amendments for further clarification, but endorsed the majority. Cr Birchfield was the sole objector, saying independent legal advice should been provided before these were put to council. "These are major changes … they should be deferred and the community should also be consulted,' he said. The former chair said he had signed the Mana Whakahono agreement in 2020 on the understanding it was a consultation document that would help to speed up and lower the cost of consenting, but this had turned out not to be the case. 'I did receive considerable criticism at the time and those critics have proven to be correct. This agreement is part of the reason why the council's compliance and consent function is so costly and delayed.' Mr Tumahai told LDR there were multiple factors causing the delays. 'It's convenient to blame Māori - we're kind of used to it - but I think with the changes the council is making we should see an improvement within a couple of months.' Part of the problem was overly-complex consent forms, and the council's use of North Island consultants who did not understand the West Coast context, Mr Tumahai conceded. The council had been swamped with applications for resource consents as the price of gold soared, and had to hire external planners to cope, he said. 'We had a workshop today on creating new templates with standard conditions for alluvial mining, and a schedule that walks you through how to apply - that should simplify it for everyone and speed things up.' Cr Birchfield - a veteran miner - did not attend the workshop, telling LDR later he needed to be at work to smelt some gold. Mr Tumahai said the clamour over consent delays was coming from a handful of miners who had not been successful with their applications. "They're not coming to grips with modern requirements and they are the ones making the noise.' The revamped Mana Whakahono agreement also sets out priority areas for improvement in which the council and iwi will collaborate as Treaty partners. They include planning for new sewerage infrastructure, and coastal retreat where buildings are at risk from erosion, flooding or sea level rise. District council and industry discharges into rivers or the sea are also seen as priorities for change, but over time. 'The discharge of wastewater into freshwater and coastal waters is an outdated solution from the last century which is culturally abhorrent to Poutini Ngai Tahu and is becoming unacceptable to others within communities,' the agreement declares. - By Lois Williams, Local Democracy Reporter
RNZ News
05-06-2025
- RNZ News
Police return hundreds of stolen pounamu pieces to local hapū in West Coast
Police recover 365 pieces of pounamu, West Coast. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police Hundreds of pieces of stolen pounamu from a remote West Coast river will be returned to the local hapū in what Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio describes as a small win against the greenstone black market. Franz Josef police recovered the 365 stolen pounamu pieces and boulders after tracking down fossickers heading upstream in a vehicle last Wednesday. Police had not laid any charges after a tip-off from the public led them to the remote Jackson River in South Westland last week, but were instead seeking an "alternative resolution" with two men in their 30s. Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio chief executive Kara Edwards said she was pleased police were taking pounamu theft seriously. "We're really thrilled to be working with the police in partnership and they did a fantastic job. Of course, we're not thrilled about the amount of pounamu that was taken," she said. Edwards said stolen pounamu was a big problem and the number of thefts seemed to be increasing. "The level of pounamu that we are seeing turn up in relation to other offences is is becoming more and more commonplace. For instance, the police might turn up to talk to somebody about a burglary or another offence and and they notice that there's a little pile of pounamu over in the corner of the house," she said. Last year, West Coast hapū Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae told RNZ stolen pounamu ranked as the commodity second most traded for drugs, after cash. Since1997, Ngāi Tahu, the South Island's largest iwi, was the sole kaitiaki or legal guardian of pounamu. Members of the public could take small quantities of pounamu from the beaches of Te Tai o Poutini - the West Coast of the South Island - but it was illegal to collect greenstone from rivers or inland areas without Ngāi Tahu's permission. Ngāi Tahu Pounamu manager Chantal Tumahai said the informal cash pounamu market remained, even though iwi encouraged people to be part of an authentication scheme that let registered carvers buy ethically-sourced stone. Under current regulations, the public may fossick for pounamu only on beaches. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police She said pieces were often exchanged for cash without Ngāi Tahu's permission and with little information about their origin. "Our main concern is the amount on Trade Me and other online platforms like Facebook Marketplace, Etsy. There are quite a number of platforms where they're selling pounamu that's potentially illegally taken from our rivers," she said. At Bonz 'n' Stonz in Hokitika, master carver Steve Gwaliasi said about half of the pounamu he used came from people walking through the door each morning with stones to sell. He said he turned sellers down when he suspected stone had been taken unlawfully, but it was not always easy to determine. "Usually there's a story, 'it's been passed down from generation to generation'," he said. "It's really hard for us, especially the jade industry in Hokitika, to get a reliable source." Gwaliasi said he had been caught out a few times buying pounamu that turned out to be stolen and had handed it to police, leaving him hundreds of dollars out of pocket. He wanted Ngāi Tahu to impose stricter controls on pounamu sales or become the sole legal seller. Edwards said fossicked pounamu sales were a legal grey area and Gwaliasi's idea was worthy of wānanga or deliberation "What we're trying to do is and encourage an industry that's built authenticity and authentic stone. Non- Ngāi Tahu people can participate in that as well by becoming authenticated, working with Ngāi Tahu pounamu," she said. Pounamu-buyers were encouraged to check for Ngāi Tahu-authenticated sellers and products, while anyone unsure of the rules for collecting greenstone should get in touch with the iwi.
Scoop
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Iwi Defends Role In West Coast Consent Process
An historic deal to work together for the good of the West Coast is under review by iwi and the West Coast Regional Council. The Whakahono a Rohe agreement - sealed at Arahura marae in 2020 - was recognised with an excellence award by the NZ Planning Institute as the first of its kind under the Resource Management Act (RMA). Five years on, the agreement is due for reappraisal - especially with RMA changes on the horizon, the council says. The protocol document, Paetae Kotahitanga ki Te Tai Poutini, was signed by the council's chair at the time, Allan Birchfield and by Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Waewae and Makaawhio rūnanga leaders. And while a staff report says the review will be a 'light touch' one because there's no need for substantive changes, Cr Birchfield is pushing for change. At the time of the signing, the former chair – and Greymouth goldminer - praised the rūnanga for having positive attitudes to economic development. But at Tuesday's council meeting Birchfield challenged Ngāti Waewae representative Francois Tumahai over the iwi's role in resource consenting. Councillors were told they would be able to work through some recommended changes at a workshop later this month. 'Will we still require iwi sign-off on all our consents?" Cr Birchfield asked. Mr Tumahai responded: 'I should hope so.' That was the intention, council staff confirmed. 'So any resource consent requires an iwi sign-off? That wasn't really my understanding when I signed that agreement,' Cr Birchfield said. Mr Tumahai said the rūnanga were required to give feedback on consent conditions. 'The decision is still made by the consents team on council. We don't make a decision on it,' he said Cr Birchfield said his understanding was that iwi signoff was about consultation, not a statutory requirement. Mr Tumahai said it was a statutory requirement. 'But the process is we engage together around the issues and agree on conditions … that's always been the case. We don't have the ability to stop it.' Cr Birchfield said he had been told by the council's chief executive Darryl Lew that if iwi did not sign off on a resource consent, it had to go to a hearing. Mr Lew said in some circumstances, the matter would proceed to a hearing. 'But that comes from the RMA, it doesn't come from the Mana Whakahono agreement.' Overall, the document was fit for purpose and just needed minor amendments, Mr Lew said. After the agreement was signed the council had gone through a challenging time, with 'a bit of unstable leadership,' and management change, Mr Lew said. 'Which really meant that the work required upon signing to work out efficient and effective ways of implementing the agreement with Poutini Ngāi Tahu did not happen.' That was the key piece of work the council and iwi now needed to do, Mr Lew said. However, Cr Birchfield said there is no statutory sign-off for iwi in the RMA - "the only one who got a statutory sign-off was Fish and Game". Mr Tumahai said that was incorrect. 'At the end of day Allan, what we're trying to achieve is to get to a point where that sort of shit doesn't happen .. otherwise everything will be going through court and we'll go nowhere fast.' Iwi were advocates in the process and did all they could to get consents across the line, he said. 'However, we need to make sure compliance is right. That's what it's about. If you decide to challenge it then I'm going to challenge it. And we'll go backwards,' the Ngati Waewae chair warned. Cr Birchfield said he wanted consents for West Coast people to be processed and granted in a timely manner at a minimum cost. 'We'll have it out in the workshop on the 20th May,' he said. Mr Birchfield has been at odds with the council over a number of issues, including staff numbers and resource consenting since he was deposed as chair in 2023 and censured for allegedly leaking confidential information to news media. -LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
