Who owns the water? Māori do
Former Cabinet minister finds it bizarre that people who have stolen an asset are now having a debate about the rights over it.
OPINION: If we were playing Jeopardy, the answer is Māori, and the winning question is, who owns the water?
What is bizarre to me is that people who have stolen an asset are now having a debate about the rights over it.
We reject co-governance because we want to have the appropriate conversation about the elephant in the room: how did Pākeha get to the table on a 100% Māori-owned asset?
During the 2020 election I asked our political arena, ‘‘Who owns the water?’’
Labour and the Greens said noone owns it, while National and ACT said we all own it. Well, how did we all get to own it and why aren’t Māori at the table? And if no-one owns the water, who gave you permission to tell us what to do with it?
The Māori version of article 2 in the Treaty of Waitangi uses the word ‘‘rangatiratanga’’ in promising to uphold the authority that tribes had always had over their lands and taonga. This choice of wording emphasises status and authority.
In the English text, the Queen guaranteed to Māori the undisturbed possession of their properties, including their lands, forests and fisheries, for as long as they wished to retain them. Over the decades there has been a complete and blatant 180 on this, without involving Māori at all.
In 1991, the Resource Management Act gave the government the right to assign water. The Crown knew they never had a right to the water and while they worked that out, they created an allocation model allowing certain rights over water, but it came with a deadline. Clearly they knew they were overstepping, hence the time constraints.
So how did we end up getting to the point where we have been invited to have a seat at their table when it comes to the decisions made about our drinking, storm and waste water across Aotearoa?
We are blessed with more than 70 river systems, alongside thousands of streams which run
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to over 450,000 kilometres. There are 3820 lakes of at least 1 hectare or more in size, plus countless outstanding aquifers.
As of February 2023, New Zealand ranked 10th out of 30 OECD countries for the size of our renewable fresh water resources on a per capita basis. Three years ago we were number four.
Our inability to manage our abundance of water is our biggest downfall. Only 5% of our rainfall is used compared to other OECD countries, which recycle up to 50% of rain. Water storage is one way to mitigate climate change.
The distribution model for the conversation over water was delegated without authority, without ownership, to all these local body warlords disguised as mayors. And just because they normalise a confiscation over an asset they don’t own, it doesn’t mean it’s correct.
There was, and still is, a belief that what is happening is right. So if you live with an injustice long enough, it becomes just in your mind as you’ve normalised an abnormal take on an issue like water and who owns it.
We’ve gone from calling it Three Waters to Affordable Water Reforms, which is just changing the colour of the lipstick on the pig and distracting us from the real issue: how did Pākeha get control of a Māori-owned asset?
I can already sense that certain mouths have become dry as they get ready to unleash their tirade of a response, which I welcome. But first, enjoy a glass of water. It’s on us.
John Tamihere is a former Labour Cabinet minister and the chief executive of Whānau Ora and
West Auckland Urban Māori organisation Te Whānau o Waipareira. He is tāne vicepresident of Te Pāti Māori.