Water Models

Details of the request

I request:
All models, including drafts or unpublished ones, that MfE holds, or has access to, for the allocation of water takes and discharges.Water issues are not new, there have been Court proceedings, Waitangi Tribunal hearings- the Ministry would not have been sitting idle during this time and surely has done a lot of work already about technical options to address Maori rights and interests for when politicians are ready to front up. This request covers any work done with the iwi leaders group, their advisors, any internal MfE work, or work with others, and includes work that gives the ability to analyse options, and/or provides different option/ approaches for addressing allocation of takes and discharges, including and particularly for Maori rights and interests, and the water itself.
The form of response requested:
1. The list of models (including drafts and unpublished ones) with: their status, their scale (e.g. national, catchment, subcatchment), whether for water takes or discharges (or both), the developer/s of model, and the options/approach it has for addressing Maori rights and interests each identified, and the water itself.
2. Copies of the models themselves
3. All reports, documents, communications that cover the scope, assumptions of each of the models 4. Any advice or memos associated with these models 5. Any advice, including drafts, on options to addressing Maori rights and interests in water.
The Ministry has a public interest to release this information- particularly if successive governments keep postponing addressing Maori rights and interests, and also when the government is requiring all councils to have plan changes done by 2025 without addressing these issues.

ministerials@mfe.govt.nz