My Account
Sheena Tepania
While four of the five commissioners who sat on the Waste Management resource consent hearings panel were satisfied that the adverse effects from the landfill could be mitigated, the chair, Sheena Tepania, was not.
In a separate 45-page section within the 317-page decision, Ms Tepania set out the reasons why she believed the application should have been refused.
She said that the actual and potential adverse effects of the landfill in terms of ecology and cultural views were significant and had not been avoided or mitigated to meet the purpose of the Resource Management Act.
She also believed the application conflicted with the objectives and policies of the Auckland Unitary Plan and the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.
Ms Tepania is of Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu and Te Rarawa descent and has practised as a lawyer, lecturer and consultant specialising in resource management, Treaty and Māori land law. She has been an independent hearings commissioner since 2011.
She found that Waste Management’s proposal was lacking on many fronts,including that it did not:
• adequately provide for the relationship of Maori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral lands, water, site, waahi tapu and taonga;
• adequately provide for the protection of areas of significant indigenous flora and fauna;
• appropriately address kaitiakitanga, the ethic of stewardship, intrinsic values of ecosystems, maintenance and enhancement of the quality of the environment and any finite characteristics of natural and physical resources;
• sufficiently take into account the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
“I am also of the view that the applicant has not provided satisfactory evidence that the proposal has a functional need to locate or operate on this particular site or that the landfill activity can only occur on this site,” her statement said.
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