Water Rights and Partial Asset Sales
What is RSS?
Feb 2012The debate over the incorporation of section 9 of the State Owned Enterprises Act into new legislation, allowing the partial sale of four state owned enterprise power companies has led to the New Zealand Māori Council lodging a claim in the Waitangi Tribunal, including one relating to rights to the water used by the companies. This claim is likely to be based on similar grounds to the claim to the foreshore and seabed, that Māori traditionally controlled waterways within their rohe and their customary title has never been extinguished.
Under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), water allocation is carried out by regional councils who assess the benefits and detriments of applications. The relationship of Māori with their ancestral waters is considered as part of this process under section 8 of the RMA. If through this claim Māori are found to own water, the existing system of water management will likely need to be reassessed in terms of decision making and allocation. A claim to ownership of a natural resource also raises the possibility of water as tradable commodity that can be bought, sold, or held on to.
It remains to be seen whether the claim is capable of settlement by negotiation with the Government as part of the process of sale of the state owned assets (in a similar way for example as occurred with fishery and forestry rights). If the claim makes it to Court, there could be significant ramifications for the system of water management in New Zealand. At this early stage, the outcome of this Treaty claim is hard to predict. We will provide further analysis as the details become available.
If you require any further information about this topic, do not hesitate to contact Maree Baker, Fiona McLeod or Jen Crawford of our Resource Management Team.
Prepared by Maree Baker-Galloway
