Freshwater — assert Māori rights over water

The Policy: TPM Freshwater Policy — 2023 Election →

Pitched as a fundamental correction of a long-standing Treaty breach, Te Pāti Māori's freshwater policy seeks to formally recognise Māori proprietary and decision-making rights over freshwater bodies — rights the party argues have been guaranteed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi since 1840 but never implemented by successive governments.

What it does

• Overturns the Crown's "no ownership" position. Te Pāti Māori proposes to replace the Crown's stance that "everyone owns water" with explicit acknowledgement of Māori proprietary, customary and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) rights and interests in freshwater.
• Restores Te Mana o te Wai. The party would reinstate and strengthen the Te Mana o te Wai framework — the principle that waterway health comes first, followed by human health needs, then economic use — which the National-led government suspended from resource consenting in 2024 while developing replacement rules. Three options for the concept's fate are being consulted on in 2025, including full removal.
• Restarts Crown–hapū negotiations. Te Pāti Māori would convene new formal negotiations between the Government and hapū and iwi to build a policy framework for how Māori rights and interests are implemented across freshwater management and allocation.
• Moratorium on new water bottling consents. The party calls for an immediate freeze on resource consents for commercial water bottling operations until a new and Treaty-compliant allocation regime is in place — a position also supported by public petition groups.
• Commercial user-pays system. A levy on commercial water users would fund catchment restoration, with boosted funding for iwi and hapū to protect waterways, aquifers and wetlands.
• RMA reform grounded in Te Tiriti. Te Pāti Māori would reform the Resource Management Act (or its replacement) to embed an equal partnership between tangata whenua and the Crown in all freshwater management and allocation decisions. The Waitangi Tribunal's 2019 Stage 2 report found the RMA was in breach of Te Tiriti because it refused to recognise Māori proprietary rights during the Act's development.
• $300 million fund for Māori farmers. The 2023 election platform included a fund to incentivise Māori farmers transitioning to regenerative farming, alongside a phase-out of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser.

The underlying legal basis is longstanding. The Waitangi Tribunal found in August 2012 that Māori held rights in water bodies at 1840 "for which the closest English equivalent was ownership rights," and that those rights were confirmed and guaranteed by Te Tiriti. The Tribunal's 2019 Stage 2 report called for a national co-governance body, a percentage-based regional water allocation to iwi and hapū, and recognition of Māori proprietary rights in any RMA replacement.

The result

The policy is directionally a demand that unresolved Treaty obligations be honoured — but it has not been enacted, and the political environment since 2023 has moved sharply in the opposite direction. The National-led government's Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2024 removed the requirement for councils to follow the Te Mana o te Wai hierarchy when issuing resource consents, relaxed farm-waterway fencing rules, and permitted more intensive winter grazing. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop stated the replacement legislation would not include a clause requiring the Act to "give effect to" Treaty principles. The RMA replacement factsheet released in September 2024 confirmed Treaty settlement recognition would be included, but a Treaty compliance obligation would not.

Meanwhile, New Zealand's freshwater quality continued to worsen: the Ministry for the Environment's *Our Freshwater 2026* report (April 2026) found nearly half of total river length unsafe for swimming (2020–24), 45% of 998 groundwater monitoring sites recorded E. coli above safe drinking water levels at least once, and 39% showed likely worsening nitrate trends. Waikato University associate professor Nicholas Ling called the findings "sobering reading."

In November 2025, a High Court hearing (*Wai Manawa Whenua v Crown*) saw a coalition of iwi, hapū and Māori landowner groups — including the Federation of Māori Authorities, chaired by Traci Houpapa — argue the Crown violated 2012 assurances made to the Supreme Court regarding Māori water rights. Houpapa stated: "We want them to recognise our rights and to design, alongside us, a fair system." Some catchments face over-allocation of up to 1,000 percent. Justice Grice reserved her decision.

Supporters of Te Pāti Māori's position argue decades of broken Crown commitments and worsening water quality validate the need for formal rights recognition. Critics — including Federated Farmers, which called Te Mana o te Wai "unworkable and highly problematic" — argue the current framework imposes unrealistic compliance costs on farmers and that economic and environmental goals are better balanced through flexibility rather than a legally-entrenched hierarchy.

> Neutrality note: This policy touches on constitutional questions about Treaty-based rights, co-governance and property rights in water. Positions below are attributed to named parties; the summary does not adopt any legal interpretation as settled.

The impacts to watch

• **High Court ruling in *Wai Manawa Whenua v Crown*:** A decision in favour of the applicants could force the Crown to fundamentally restructure the water allocation regime, with major implications for farming, municipal water use, and the entire RMA reform programme.
• 2025 freshwater reform consultation: The government's consultation (closed July 27, 2025) on three options for Te Mana o te Wai — ranging from minor rebalancing to full deletion — will shape whether any iwi/hapū role in freshwater consenting survives the new legislation.
• Worsening water quality and public health: With 45% of groundwater sites exceeding E. coli safe limits and nitrate contamination linked to bowel cancer risk and pre-term birth (per GNS Science researchers cited in parliamentary debate), the status quo carries measurable health costs.
• Commercial water bottling: The absence of a moratorium means consenting for commercial water extraction — which Māori groups argue diverts shared resources without Treaty-compliant process — continues under existing rules.