Leave Spirituality Out Of Infrastructure
by ACT New Zealand · SCOOP"New Zealanders should be able to build a house, a solar farm or a factory without being made to take part in, or pay for, a religious ceremony as a condition of consent," says ACT’s Infrastructure, Energy and Climate Change spokesperson, Simon Court.
"Planning law should regulate effects that can be identified, measured and tested, and protect rights recognised by law. It should not require planners, councils or judges to rule on spiritual or religious beliefs.
"Unfortunately, emerging litigation has seen spiritual effects increasingly become part of our resource management system.
“For example, some housing developments must invite iwi to perform a karakia before construction begins, with the developer paying for it. IKEA’s Sylvia Park consent requires invitations to seven mana whenua groups to attend karakia and ceremonies at specified construction milestones. Solar farms at Ongaonga and Ōpunake have similar conditions. The Ōtākiri water-bottling dispute reached the Supreme Court, where evidence about te mauri o te wai was considered.
“The new Planning Act and Natural Environment Act, which received Royal assent this week, are a significant improvement. They do not carry over the RMA’s spiritual-value requirement. But leaving a requirement out is not the same as ruling it out. Without a clear boundary, people can still bring spiritual matters back in under broader cultural-effects provisions, leaving councils and courts to draw the line case by case.
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“ACT will finish the job.”
ACT will:
- Exclude purely spiritual and religious effects. A religious or spiritual belief, or a claim of spiritual harm, could not on its own be treated as an adverse effect or justify refusing or restricting consent, requesting further information, or imposing a consent condition. The rule would apply equally to all religions and belief systems and use the test already applied under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act.
- Ban compulsory spiritual observances. No consent or permit could require anyone to perform, take part in, arrange or fund a prayer, karakia, blessing or other religious observance. Anyone who wants to do these things voluntarily still could.
- Replace Te Mana o te Wai with measurable freshwater outcomes. Councils would work to clear, testable standards for water quality, ecosystem health and human health.
"None of this takes away protection for anything real. Heritage sites, urupā, archaeological sites, customary physical uses, water quality, ecosystems and rights in Treaty settlement legislation would all still be dealt with directly.
"The test is simple. Is there an identifiable physical effect, place, resource or legal right? If there is, deal with it. If the claimed effect exists only as a spiritual proposition, it isn't the planning system's job."
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