Abstract
The Government has opened public consultation on the changes proposed to establish what it calls “enduring” national freshwater policy.
However, the Government is choosing to go against advice from the majority of regional councils, iwi, freshwater, public health and other experts on the most fundamental elements of our national freshwater policy. It is also choosing to ignore key lessons from the past 15 years of policy development and research.
We argue that the Coalition is too closely aligned with narrow, polluting commercial interests to produce policy that is enduring, instead opening the door to enduring community-level to court-level conflict. Proposed changes risk setting the country back decades in the work to restore the fresh waterways that are foundational for public health and community well-being.