Iwi Defends Role In West Coast Consent Process

Thursday, 8 May 2025, 8:39 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

An historic deal to work together for the good of the West Coast is under review by iwi and the West Coast Regional Council.

The Whakahono a Rohe agreement - sealed at Arahura marae in 2020 - was recognised with an excellence award by the NZ Planning Institute as the first of its kind under the Resource Management Act (RMA).

Five years on, the agreement is due for reappraisal - especially with RMA changes on the horizon, the council says.

The protocol document, Paetae Kotahitanga ki Te Tai Poutini, was signed by the council’s chair at the time, Allan Birchfield and by Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Waewae and Makaawhio rūnanga leaders.

And while a staff report says the review will be a ‘light touch’ one because there’s no need for substantive changes, Cr Birchfield is pushing for change.

At the time of the signing, the former chair – and Greymouth goldminer - praised the rūnanga for having positive attitudes to economic development.

But at Tuesday’s council meeting Birchfield challenged Ngāti Waewae representative Francois Tumahai over the iwi's role in resource consenting.

Councillors were told they would be able to work through some recommended changes at a workshop later this month.

“Will we still require iwi sign-off on all our consents?" Cr Birchfield asked.

Mr Tumahai responded: “I should hope so.”

That was the intention, council staff confirmed.

“So any resource consent requires an iwi sign-off? That wasn’t really my understanding when I signed that agreement,” Cr Birchfield said.

Mr Tumahai said the rūnanga were required to give feedback on consent conditions.

“The decision is still made by the consents team on council. We don’t make a decision on it,” he said

Cr Birchfield said his understanding was that iwi signoff was about consultation, not a statutory requirement.

Mr Tumahai said it was a statutory requirement.

“But the process is we engage together around the issues and agree on conditions … that’s always been the case. We don’t have the ability to stop it.”

Cr Birchfield said he had been told by the council’s chief executive Darryl Lew that if iwi did not sign off on a resource consent, it had to go to a hearing.

Mr Lew said in some circumstances, the matter would proceed to a hearing.

“But that comes from the RMA, it doesn’t come from the Mana Whakahono agreement.”

Overall, the document was fit for purpose and just needed minor amendments, Mr Lew said.

After the agreement was signed the council had gone through a challenging time, with “a bit of unstable leadership,” and management change, Mr Lew said.

“Which really meant that the work required upon signing to work out efficient and effective ways of implementing the agreement with Poutini Ngāi Tahu did not happen.”

That was the key piece of work the council and iwi now needed to do, Mr Lew said.

However, Cr Birchfield said there is no statutory sign-off for iwi in the RMA - "the only one who got a statutory sign-off was Fish and Game".

Mr Tumahai said that was incorrect.

“At the end of day Allan, what we’re trying to achieve is to get to a point where that sort of shit doesn’t happen .. otherwise everything will be going through court and we’ll go nowhere fast.”

Iwi were advocates in the process and did all they could to get consents across the line, he said.

“However, we need to make sure compliance is right. That’s what it’s about. If you decide to challenge it then I’m going to challenge it. And we’ll go backwards,” the Ngati Waewae chair warned.

Cr Birchfield said he wanted consents for West Coast people to be processed and granted in a timely manner at a minimum cost.

“We’ll have it out in the workshop on the 20th May,” he said.

Mr Birchfield has been at odds with the council over a number of issues, including staff numbers and resource consenting since he was deposed as chair in 2023 and censured for allegedly leaking confidential information to news media.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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