Request for documents regarding Māori rights in freshwater

Details of the request

1. In 2012 Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson gave affidavit assurances that the Supreme Court relied on in 2013 that the Crown was committed to make provision for past actions that were inconsistent with Māori Rights in freshwater, including “through redress provided in Treaty settlements” (the Ministers’ assurances).
2. The Waitangi Tribunal subsequently released its Stage 2 Water Claim (Wai 2358) report. It reconfirmed that Māori rights in freshwater include proprietary rights. It also relevantly recognised that pressure on freshwater bodies will continue to grow, and that the Crown should not wait for that pressure to reach full allocation before putting in place a new Tiriti consistent allocation system.
3. We request from MfE under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) copies of all documents that:
   1. Refer to the Ministers’ assurances; and
   2. Identify and/or assess the relevance of the Ministers’ assurances to actual or proposed changes to policy or to law reform (including without limitation actual or proposed changes to the Resource Management Act 1991).
4. The documents identified in response to para 3 above should include (without limitation) MfE advice to Ministers, Cabinet papers and Cabinet Minutes.
5. Please advise us urgently if there are any problems with the above OIA requests.
6. In responding to these OIA requests, can the documentation requested in para 3 above please be released to us as soon as possible, and not just when all documentation sought has been found.

Released documents

1. Freshwater decision-making and Māori rights and interests - a stocktake of where we have been and where we might be going (PDF, 4.4 MB)
2. Table 1: Timeline of key views of the Crown and members of the Collective expressed on rights and interests in freshwater (PDF, 1.1 MB)
3. Connections between Māori freshwater rights and interests and proposed reforms of the resource management system (PDF, 1.6 MB)
4. Re: Proposed next steps for Māori right and interests in freshwater (PDF, 3.5 MB)
5. Māori rights and interests in freshwater governance and decision-making - a whole-of-MfE picture (PDF, 1.1 MB)
6. Package of briefings covering Māori rights and interest in freshwater (PDF, 3.4MB)
   1. BRF-3973 Land Use, Freshwater, and the Marine Environment
   2. BRF-1679 RM Reform 190 - Delegated decisions on Māori freshwater rights and interests preservation clause and statutory time frame 
   3. BRF-4158: MBIE MfE Briefing Policy decisions on the National Policy Statement for Renewable Electricity Generation and the National Policy Statement on Electricity Transmission 
   4. BRF-4460 Progressing Changes to the Freshwater Management System
   5. Attachment 4: Extract from BRF 4561 Aide Memoire: Advice on Electrify NZ cabinet Paper - Māori Rights and Interests 

OIA@mfe.govt.nz