There has been a curiously lethargic reaction to the Land and
Water Forum's report regarding steps to improve water quality levels over the
next few years. Environmental organisations have decried the report as timid, while
the Minister for the Environment has said the report shows the Forum has
reached the end of its life. Yet neither has criticised directly its
recommendations. Whether that means they will be implemented in whole or in
part remains to be seen.
Since its establishment by the
Government nearly ten years ago, the Forum, which contains a wide
representation of business, environmental and recreational groups (but no
longer major conservation groups like Fish and Game) has made a series of
recommendations on freshwater management. But there has never been wholesale
acceptance of its work. The previous Government adopted a pick and choose
approach to its earlier reports, which caused much frustration within the Forum
and led to the withdrawal of some organisations, yet the present Government
seems likely to take a similar approach to this latest report.
However, there is no doubt that the
issues the Forum is dealing with impinge directly upon the future ownership and
management of our national freshwater resources. Therefore, it would have been
reasonable to expect Governments, past and present, to have taken more notice
of what it has had to say. This latest and potentially last report addresses
water degradation issues and a future plan for dealing with these. It makes the
telling point that water management standards are currently variable between
regional councils, with no clear national enforcement, and proposes instead a
national approach.
Perhaps more controversial is the view
of the Forum about iwi rights in freshwater management. It rightly points out
that resolving these will be critical to future freshwater management. The
previous Government travelled warily around their edge during the tortuous
resource management changes of the last few years, trying to balance off the
concerns of the Maori Party against any perception of exclusivity. The Forum
draws the obvious conclusion that the longer these rights and claims remain
unresolved, the more difficult it is becoming to achieve consistent management
standards and an improvement in overall freshwater quality. And that effects
all New Zealanders.
While the Land and Water Forum may have
come to the end of the road, the issues still cry out for resolution. The
debate around the impact of dairy intensification on water degradation is
strengthening, and public impatience for the Government taking decisive action
to improve water quality is increasing. In the absence of any other likely
successful strategies, the Government should adopt the Forum's recommendation
of a new national approach, and get on with it.
A clear early statement to that effect
would not only remove the existing uncertainty, but would also clear the way
for the issue of iwi rights to be similarly addressed. But, if past experience
is any guideline, this is likely to be the point where things founder.
Frankly, that will no longer be good
enough. All the while, as uncertainty holds sway, water quality will continue
to decline and New Zealand's credible ability to market itself as clean and
green will similarly continue to erode. Rather than deride the Land and Water
Forum for its perceived shortcomings, the Government and environmental groups
need to come together to implement its recommendations, put things on a
national basis, and then devise an effective future management system, which
acknowledges the legitimate rights of iwi, and the interests of other New
Zealanders.
The babies born today deserve no
less.
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