Kāpiti Coast iwi Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai are devastated at the news the Government will halt all council plan changes until 2027, as they await the hearing of a local plan change to have a cemetery designated as waahi tapu.

Kārewarewa urupā, located at Waikanae Beach, has a long and complex history, being utilised since 1839. It was sold by the Māori Trustee in 1968 to a private company under the impression it wasn’t a cemetery, and lost its cemetery designation in 1970, despite local kaumātua objections. Half of the cemetery was developed into housing in the 1970s, creating a painful grievance for the local iwi. More recent attempts to develop the other half in 2000 resulted in the discovery of 11 buried individuals, and development has halted since. The most recent application to develop the remaining land was in 2019.

Following an urgent report by the Waitangi Tribunal in 2020 into the urupā history, identifying the need to protect the urupā, the Kāpiti Coast District Council have worked on a plan change they’ve notified to designate the urupā as waahi tapu, providing protection from further development, and a means of ensuring residents don’t find themselves in the uncomfortable position of purchasing housing on cemetery lands.

However, Minister of Resource Management Reform Chris Bishop announced earlier this week that the Government would be halting all Council planning work in New Zealand, including plan changes, until the implementation of his new Resource Management Act in 2027.

“We echo the concerns of other communities across Aotearoa who are highlighting a wide range of troubling consequences this halt is creating, by stripping communities of the ability to manage their own affairs and ensure development happens in a manner that our own residents want” says iwi resource management expert Dr. Mahina-a-rangi Baker.

Treaty of Waitangi claimant and local kaumatua Tutere Parata says “As an iwi we’ve had to deal with the impacts of development that has historically happened against our wishes or without our input. We’ve had to support distressed residents who through no fault of their own discover they’re living on a burial ground, sometimes encountering human remains. Halting this plan change only puts more people at risk. Regardless of what any future resource management law says, Waikanae residents won’t want to live on a cemetery.”

Chairperson of Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai Rawiri Tāwhai-Bodsworth says that the halt has serious implications for not only us as mana whenua, but all our community. “By taking away the tools that we rely upon Council using to protect our taonga, such as urupā and waahi tapu, the Government is again breaching Te Tiriti o Waitangi, after a long painful history of successive breaches and ill treatment. We want the breaches of Te Tiriti to stop.”

Dr. Baker says the announcement highlights what she says is a lack of understanding on the part of Ministers as to what communities and local government are dealing with on the ground. “The issue isn’t that Councils need to reign in spending, the issue is that we have a range of critical resource management responsibilities devolved to our Councils, with the lowest levels of tax devolution to local government in the OECD. The Government should be addressing the funding model for local government, not stripping the tools that enable us to develop and protect our communities.

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