Post by Kiwi Frontline on Aug 23, 2017 18:04:22 GMT 12
NO ONE OWNS WATER, JUDITH COLLINS TELLS BUSINESS LEADERS
Energy and Revenue Minister Judith Collins has dismissed questions of iwi or any other ownership of water, saying it is not a finite resource as it falls from the sky.
Collins appeared with other MPs on a resources panel at the Deloitte-BusinessNZ election conference at Te Papa in Wellington today.
"If you consider... that nobody owns the water, then that is pretty clear as soon as you start saying you do own water, then you have property rights, which then have all the ramifications - whether it is iwi or anybody else - relating to those rights," Collins said in response to a question from the floor.
"We don't believe that water is a finite resource, because every day, particularly if you are in Auckland, it rains. So we have worked out where it comes from."
Collins' comments come after Labour dismissed comments from Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson that Labour's proposal for a tax of about 2c per 1000 litres on commercial waters users could force Treaty of Waitangi settlements to be renegotiated because a royalty asserted ownership, and would inevitably force a counter-assertion that Maori owned the water. Labour was "dicing with death", he said.......
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11909375
Energy and Revenue Minister Judith Collins has dismissed questions of iwi or any other ownership of water, saying it is not a finite resource as it falls from the sky.
Collins appeared with other MPs on a resources panel at the Deloitte-BusinessNZ election conference at Te Papa in Wellington today.
"If you consider... that nobody owns the water, then that is pretty clear as soon as you start saying you do own water, then you have property rights, which then have all the ramifications - whether it is iwi or anybody else - relating to those rights," Collins said in response to a question from the floor.
"We don't believe that water is a finite resource, because every day, particularly if you are in Auckland, it rains. So we have worked out where it comes from."
Collins' comments come after Labour dismissed comments from Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson that Labour's proposal for a tax of about 2c per 1000 litres on commercial waters users could force Treaty of Waitangi settlements to be renegotiated because a royalty asserted ownership, and would inevitably force a counter-assertion that Maori owned the water. Labour was "dicing with death", he said.......
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11909375