Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
3 JULY 2017

Waikato Regional Council to Allow Iwi to Trade Water

National’s race-based planning is here with Waikato Regional Council voting to give water allocation and trading rights to Waikato Iwi.
“Everything this National Government said would not happen, is happening,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Waikato Regional Council has approved as a high priority policy: “Iwi rights and interests in fresh water agreed with central government are recognised and provided for”. They even define success as being: “when Iwi have adequate access and rights to water”.

“The implications are massive and turns upside down Waikato’s already controversial Variation 6. Those allocated water will see that clawed-back and given to Waikato Iwi who’ll be free to use it as they see fit.

“This includes selling it back to those it was taken from, but of course, with a margin on top. The Sicilian Mafia would be envious of such a protection racket as it is Koha for Consents.

“Yet Waikato Iwi will not be subject to the same nutrient and farming limitations as everyone else, but everyone else will be expected to meet ever tighter water quality rules. This is ‘farm as I say and not as I farm’ with everyone but Waikato Iwi copping the blame and the costs.

“It’s a greenlight for full scale water trading so long as you are from the right Iwi. The gerrymandering even extends to stacked Waikato Iwi representation on the re-established Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board and Waikato Regional Council Co-Governance Committee.

“This is a complete and utter sell out by National. The dripping liberal wets in National have become the guilt-ridden hand-wringing European branch of the Maori Party.

“National’s coterie of quislings have peddled lie after lie like repeatedly saying that ‘owning a resource like water is as nonsensical as a resource like air.’ If that’s true, what on earth are “Iwi rights and interests in fresh water agreed with central government”?

“And then you have it, separatism by stealth.”

ENDS

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