Farming
Groundswell NZ’s campaign to stop the new District Plan in Gore from including sites and areas of significance to Maori stepped up a notch this week, with leaders presenting to council.
Co-founders Laurie Paterson and Bryce McKenzie spoke to the Gore District Council on Tuesday about what they think are blanket and arbitrary rules across the district regarding the Resource Management Act (RMA).
“Gore is one of the first councils to have this kind of approach in its new District Plan, but it’s coming to other councils and yours could be next. We’re fighting to stop this in Gore so there’s a precedent for the rest of New Zealand against the bureaucratic land grab expanding with these tactics,” they said.
The proposed District Plan includes a chapter under Section 6 of the RMA that respects Ngai Tahu’s understanding of their cultural values, with regard to all of the land and water being significant to them.
Mayor Ben Bell told Groundswell that the Ngai Tahu Cultural Values chapter would only be considered for specific high-risk activities, but the lobby group was not convinced.
“If this goes ahead, all landowners could have their land subject to the kind of counterproductive, unworkable and intrusive bureaucracy that RMA Section 6 classifications bring,” Groundswell said.
The list of areas of significance to iwi would have an impact on activities close to rivers and streams and subdivisions impacting notable trees.
…”it’s one thing to say that the local iwi should be consulted about a pa or burial ground, but quite another to push forward with this kind of vague and arbitrary attack on property rights,” the group said.
Laurie told council he was “appalled” that they had even let the proposal into the District Plan in the first place. A hearing with commissioners on submissions would be starting next week.
“Who in their right mind would invest in the Gore district with so much uncertainty of their property rights,” he said.
There were currently 1400 rural ratepayers in the district and he said they should all be considering a rates freeze in protest.
Bryce said the proposal was causing more problems than it was going to be worth, “and undermined cultural values, and will cause a detrimental impact on community harmony.”
They questioned the Gore council on where the idea first came from - was it from a council, member? A member of the public or iwi?
“Because it’s not happening anywhere else,” he said.
The pair received applause from a packed public gallery who came to support them.