Report urges better effort from Govt

Press, 7 December 1988, Page 3

Report urges better effort from Govt

By

JANE ENGLAND,

Maori affairs reporter The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment urged the Government to improve its response to Waitangi Tribunal recommendations .on Maori land claims, in special report tabled yesterday. The commissioner, Mrs Helen Hughes, was reporting to Parliament on the Government’s response to tribunal recommendations made since 1983.

Of the 59 recommendations since that date, 21 had been fully or partially implemented.

“I have found that where the Government has not acted on the tribunal’s recommendations for reversing environmental degradation, that degradation has continued,” she said.

The Government .was not obliged to implement tribunal recommendations. But the Court of Appeal had indicated that the Government was obliged as a partner to the treaty to provide redress where breaches of the treaty principles had been identified. The Government in recent years had made bold beginnings to incorporate the principles of the treaty into environment management practices, through new clauses in environment and conservation statutes, said Mrs Hughes. “These changes are overdue. But the Govern-

ment has left the people behind.” The commissioner placed seven proposals before the Government including a recommendation for an independent body to monitor Government responses to tribunal recommendations. The Government needed to respond to tribunal recommendations by explaining promptly and clearly to the public the breaches that had ocurred and how they would be redressed, said Mrs Hughes. New legislative provision should allow for the management of natural and physical resources in a manner that was consistent with treaty principles. Such legislation would include the sharing of power in decision-making between Maori people at both central and regional Government levels, and active protection of the Maori culture. g The Government should initiate a comprehensive public education programme on treaty issues, aimed at adults, schoolchildren and immigrants.

The Opposition spokesman on Maori Affairs, Mr Winston Peters, said the report had enormous implications for the future of race relations. But he was unwilling to comment in detail on the report until he had had a chance to analyse it. Further reports, page 36