Support for a call for improved iwi participation to get reforms to the Resource Management Act passed shows that the John Key-led government is joined at the hip with the separatist Maori Party, Hobson's Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.

Yesterday, under the cover of the United States election, Environment Minister Nick Smith confirmed that the stalled Resource Management Act reforms would progress after the Maori Party agreed to back them.

Smith is dressing up the bill as a great benefit by allowing homeowners to carry out minor renovations such as extending their deck or building a fence without a resource consent, Dr Brash said

But what he is hiding is an an under-the-radar constitutional change that will entrench co-governance and partnership obligations with tribal trusts into local government, Dr Brash said.

A requirement for iwi and councils to enter into agreements on how iwi can be involved in the resource management process puts iwi above other New Zealand citizens when article three of the Treaty of Waitangi simply guaranteed the people of New Zealand the same rights, Dr Brash said.

New Zealand First has repeatedly offered 12 votes to secure significant RMA reform so long as reform based upon the principle of one law for all. But National has chosen iwi over Kiwi.

Dr Brash said that that NZ First is the only party in Parliament insisting on one law for all.

Nick Smith's inclusion of iwi participation clauses in RMA amendments shows that the National Party is stubbornly pushing the agenda of the separatist Maori Party, Dr Brash said.

Don Brash

November 10, 2016