The group insists this is “not about ownership,” yet their own court documents ask for decision-making powers and potential charges or rentals for water use. In plain terms, that means creating a parallel system where an unelected tribal authority could decide who gets access to water — and at what cost.
Let’s be clear: water is a public resource. It should be managed for the benefit of all New Zealanders, not carved up through Treaty-based arrangements that risk embedding permanent commercial advantages for select groups.
We all want clean rivers and fair access to water. But control of water allocation must remain in the hands of accountable, democratic institutions — not private tribal bodies with vested interests. The moment water becomes a commodity to “clip the ticket”, ordinary farmers, households, and businesses will pay the price.
The Government must stand firm. Stewardship of our most essential resource should stay where it belongs — with the people of New Zealand as a whole.
References:
The New Zealand Herald: “Māori group takes freshwater rights fight to court in landmark case against Crown”
We all want clean rivers and fair access to water. But control of water allocation must remain in the hands of accountable, democratic institutions — not private tribal bodies with vested interests. The moment water becomes a commodity to “clip the ticket”, ordinary farmers, households, and businesses will pay the price.
The Government must stand firm. Stewardship of our most essential resource should stay where it belongs — with the people of New Zealand as a whole.
References:
The New Zealand Herald: “Māori group takes freshwater rights fight to court in landmark case against Crown”
Michael Laws talks to Kingi Smiler about iwi legal action on water.
Landmark Māori freshwater rights case in court this week.
Iwi Chairs United on Freshwater Rights and Interests
Tribes Plan For $1b Plus Water Ownership (2015) - Mike Butler
Iwi claim challenges parliamentary sovereignty, Crown says
Geoff Parker is a passionate advocate for equal rights and a colour blind society.
Landmark Māori freshwater rights case in court this week.
Iwi Chairs United on Freshwater Rights and Interests
Tribes Plan For $1b Plus Water Ownership (2015) - Mike Butler
Iwi claim challenges parliamentary sovereignty, Crown says
Geoff Parker is a passionate advocate for equal rights and a colour blind society.
10 comments:
Exactly. A "watershed " issue for the Coalition. (No pun intended.)
Water should not 'belong' to anyone in any of its forms.
Geoff, I think the ultimate question is, who has sovereignty of New Zealand. The answer can only be We the People. It is the people who have created the power by creating the nation. It is ours and not for Parliament or the Waitangi Tribunal to give away.
Woe betide any activist jurist that grants such nonsense. They better be prepared to pack their bags and join Ardern, and soon (quite likely) Luxon.
Are you suggesting that this is a jury case ?
Whoa, a jury to decide the rights to all NZ water by 12, sub 100 IQ, people selected at random, and whittled down by smart arse lawyers ??
Sheer bloody lunacy !!!
Where is Luxon ?? Why doesn't he pull the pin on this ?
As a 4th generation NZer I consider myself indigenous. I don’t have the- “I feel Māori” - heritage, but I sure as hell feel like a NZer. And as far as I am concerned, the foreshore and seabed, freshwater, anything to do with the heavens, (and I’m sure there’s more) belong to all the citizens of NZ and should be held in custody by the Crown.
Who is representing the 83% non maori citizens in this Fresh water Court case that slithers into our media viewpoint when the case has started?
NZ only needs an individual person, self or legally represented to ensure that the full transcript is available to NZ because the biased media and woke parliamentary staff will just shovel racial division through the Courts
If we are now living in a nation, a society if you like, that permits certain people to declare that our water is ‘owned’ by a minority segment of our citizenry (based on a specific mix of ancestry), then I suggest that we collectively and firmly tell them to stop being so irrational. More bluntly, to pull their heads in.
Blame John Key. He should have said "everyone owns the water" then then our activist semi indigenous friends would not have been able to proffer a counter argument. The irony is, as a stone age people water was something they needed but had no control over.
Water - being the new "GOLD" - is a precious commodity to all of mankind, animals and plants. It falls freely from the sky. Are the clouds next to be purloined by the grasping hands of iwi interests? One is left to ponder, does IWI stand for I Want It?
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