Council staff unable to promise improved consents process despite cultural facilitators
Auckland Council staff have been unable to give assurances to council members that consenting processes will improve
despite council hiring extra people to facilitate dealings in the process between applicants and Maori, says Councillor
Dick Quax.
“This means the Council has hired extra staff to perform functions which council executives have no idea they can carry
out effectively and efficiently.
“This is ridiculous and unprofessional. I questioned officials whether applicants would just deal with the Iwi
identified by the facilitator as relevant to the resource consent application. They were unable to provide an assurance
that this would be the case.”
It was recently disclosed that nearly 4000 sites of value and significance to Maori in the Auckland area would require a
“cultural impact” assessment by mana whenua from up to 19 Iwi before work can begin on these sites under resource
consent council rules.
“Should a tribal group from as far away as the Waikato feel they have an interest in the particular site covered by the
consent application there is nothing to stop their involvement regardless how dubious their links might be.
“The reality of all this, is that Council is now running a parallel consenting process with 19 Maori tribal groups
having consenting authority in Auckland.
Ends