We support the broad objectives of the Natural Environment Bill to create a more efficient, certain, and outcomes-focused system for managing New Zealand’s natural resources. Replacing the complex Resource Management Act is long overdue.
However, we strongly oppose several provisions that undermine local democracy and equal citizenship. These clauses centralise power in Wellington and embed or preserve ethnicity-based participatory rights and protections that are not available to all New Zealanders. Such measures conflict with the fundamental democratic principle of equal rights under the law.
Key Concerns
1. Centralisation of power and erosion of local democracy: The Bill grants extensive ministerial override powers, including the ability to direct the preparation of plans and documents (Section 217) and to require regional councils to give effect to national instruments (Sections 71–72). The Minister of Conservation is also given powers equivalent to those of regional councils (Section 220).
While national direction has a place, these provisions significantly reduce the role of locally elected councils and communities. This distances environmental decision-making from the people most affected and weakens democratic accountability. The best environmental work in New Zealand today is taking place at the local community level. The catchment, land care, water care, and a host of other groups where communities are coming together to proactively manage and improve their local environments are having a significant, positive impact on environmental outcomes.
2. Entrenchment of race-based rights and unequal participation: The Bill includes an explicit goal to “provide for Māori interests” through mandatory Māori/iwi participation in the development of national instruments and natural environment plans and the identification and protection of sites of significance to Māori (including wāhi tapu, water bodies, or sites in or on the coastal marine area).
In addition, the Bill protects “protected customary rights” (Sections 101–103) and customary marine title, creating processes that give specific groups preferential influence or veto-like powers over activities that other citizens do not enjoy. Sections 9 and 10 require the Crown to uphold and give equivalent effect to Treaty settlement redress and arrangements.
These provisions create a two-tier system in which participatory rights, influence over planning, and protections are allocated based on ancestry. This directly contradicts the promise of equal citizenship contained in Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi, which guarantees all the people of New Zealand the same rights and duties.
3. Preservation of undemocratic arrangements: The Bill intends to carry forward or give effect to existing joint management agreements, Mana Whakahono ā Rohe-style arrangements, and other iwi participation deals under the Resource Management Act 1991. These agreements were typically negotiated without public consultation or a democratic mandate from ratepayers. Grandfathering them entrenches unequal rights rather than delivering the equal framework we expect from meaningful reform.
4. Provision for levies on the taking or use of natural resources: Under section 313, the Minister for the Environment is authorised to enable natural resource levies, being charges applied to the taking or use of specified natural resources.
Concerns include:
- The Minister for the Environment’s ability to enable levies on natural resources, such as water, and to do so without needing to go through Parliament.
- The explicit exemption from any such levies for protected customary rights groups, thereby replacing equal rights before the law with a differentiated status based on ancestry. This, and other similar provisions in the bill, undermine fairness and public trust in the resource management system, erode legal consistency, and deepen social divisions.
Summary of recommendations
Democracy Action recommends the following amendments:
- Limit ministerial override powers and restore meaningful local democratic control and community input in natural environment planning.
- Strengthen public notification and participation rights so that all affected citizens have equal opportunity to engage.
- Remove all ancestry-based participatory rights and protections: Delete or amend provisions granting preferential Māori/iwi participation and customary rights that are not available equally to other citizens.
- Ensure planning rules apply neutrally and consistently to all land and all citizens, without ethnicity-based distinctions.
- Cancel or allow to lapse existing joint management agreements, Mana Whakahono ā Rohe, transfers of power and similar undemocratic arrangements upon transition to the new legislation— do not grandfather them.
- Clearly define Treaty obligations in the Bill to ensure consistency with equal citizenship and to prevent ongoing judicial expansion and litigation.
- Remove provision for natural resources levies (clause 313).
- Cautious identification and protection of sites of significance: Ensure the legislation includes a provision that landowner consent is necessary prior to assigning "site of cultural, historic, or spiritual significance" status to any private property. Furthermore, safeguard public access to and use of public land, water bodies, and the coastal marine area by requiring clear, robust, and verifiable evidence when designating sites of cultural, historic, or spiritual significance.
Conclusion
The Natural Environment Bill should deliver genuine reform grounded in democratic equality, accountability, and the principle of one law applying equally to all. Provisions that centralise decision-making authority or confer rights on an ethnicity-based basis risk undermining these foundational principles. We therefore urge the Committee to recommend the removal or substantial amendment of any such clauses, to ensure the final Act upholds equal citizenship, strengthens local democratic participation, and supports a fair and inclusive society in which every New Zealander knows they belong on the same terms.
Thank you for considering this submission.