Democracy Action founder, Lee Short, attended the hearing on 30 October for the Regional Policy Statement (005) topic with lawyers Stephen Franks and Pam McMillan.Below are the handouts presented at the meeting. Continue reading

We've been getting a lot of questions from members of the public wanting to know whether their property could be affected by the PAUP's Mana Whenua provisions. Although some types of resource consent activities (such as discharging into water or air) may trigger 'cultural impact assessments' regardless of where they are in Auckland, the main impact is likely to be initially felt by property owners within 200m of more than 3,600 sites of value to Mana Whenua. Continue reading

Video footage of our recent public meeting on the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan is now available online via our YouTube channel. At the conclusion of the meeting, there was a fascinating Q&A session where Democracy Action supporters asked questions of Chief Planning Official Roger Blakeley. Click below to watch. The other videos are also available by clicking 'read more'. Continue reading

Democracy Action will be holding a public meeting on the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan on Saturday 18 October.To register your interest in the meeting and view further details, please visit the RSVP page here.

Below is a response from Franks Ogilvie to the letter they received from the Human Rights Commission regarding the Mana Whenua provisions.The letter to the Race Relations Commissioner from Franks Ogilvie can be found here, with the Human Rights Commission's response here. A PDF version of the response from Franks Ogilvie (below) can be downloaded here.  Continue reading

Click here to read the original submission made by Lee Short on behalf of Democracy Action on the PAUP. It reads: The purpose of the Resource Management Act (RMA), which the Auckland Unitary Plan is prepared under, is ‘to promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources’. However, there are passages within the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan which go far beyond what is the required to meet the terms of the RMA. We believe the Auckland Unitary Plan is being used as a vehicle to promote a political programme, which would result in significant constitutional change. This is most certainly neither the intent nor the purpose of the RMA. The plan speaks of partnership arrangements, the transfer of powers and/or establishment of joint management agreements with Mana Whenua. The management of Auckland’s natural and physical resources would be transferred, in part or even in some cases wholly, to one group of citizens, not answerable in any way to the general public or with any obligations to the public welfare. Accepting such provisions into the plan would have a serious impact, not only on the democratic rights of citizens who are not members of local iwi, but also on the council’s ability to act in the best interests of all Auckland citizens. Therefore, Democracy Action opposes all provisions in the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP) calling for partnership arrangements and agreements, the transfer of powers and/or establishment of joint management agreements.