MEDIA RELEASE
Waikato River Authority
For immediate release: Thursday 24 September 2026
PC1 pause sets troubling precedent for Waikato River settlement, says Authority
The Waikato River Authority says Parliament’s decision to park the core of Plan Change 1 (PC1) until 2033 sets a troubling precedent for Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato, and stalls momentum on restoring rivers that are already deteriorating.
The legislation, passed under urgency on Tuesday night, means farmers will not be required to prepare, implement and maintain a PC1 Farm Environment Plan before 2033. Those plans are how farms would show they are reducing nutrient and sediment run-off into waterways and managing the areas most likely to pollute them. The legislation comes just over three months after the Environment Court confirmed PC1 as the essential first step towards Te Ture Whaimana, the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato and Waipā Rivers established through Treaty settlement legislation.
WRA Co-Chair Danny Loughlin said the decision raised serious questions about the strength of the protections in the Waikato River settlement.
“Te Ture Whaimana was given special status in law so that the health and wellbeing of the river would come first. It is meant to prevail over national policy. What concerns us most is the precedent this sets. If Parliament can step around the Vision and Strategy by legislating a pause whenever a process becomes inconvenient, then the protection river iwi negotiated in good faith is far weaker than anyone understood it to be.”
Mr Loughlin said the Authority would hold the Government to its assurance that PC1’s work would shape what comes next.
“The law now says decision-makers must have particular regard to PC1 when Waikato’s first natural environment plan is developed. We’ll hold them to that. But particular regard in a plan that is still years away is no substitute for action on the ground now.”
WRA Co-Chair Stu Kneebone said the pause had halted momentum at the point it was most needed.
“The Environment Court called PC1 the essential first step towards Te Ture Whaimana. That first step has now been paused, and momentum is the hardest thing to rebuild. The river is already deteriorating, and it won’t wait for a new planning system. Every year we push this out adds another year to an 80-year journey.”
The Authority acknowledged that PC1’s underlying rules remain in force, including controls on nitrogen fertiliser, cultivation, intensive winter grazing and land-use change.
It will continue to work with Waikato Regional Council, central government, river iwi, the primary sector and catchment communities to keep restoration work moving during the deferral period.
ENDS
Media contact
Te Anga Nathan, Pou Pāpāho, Waikato River Authority
teanga@waikatoriver.org.nz
About the Waikato River Authority
The Waikato River Authority is an independent statutory co-governance body established in 2010 through the Waikato River Treaty settlement legislation. Its board has equal Crown and river iwi representation. The Authority is the custodian of Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato, the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato and Waipā Rivers. It funds restoration projects across the catchment through the Waikato River Clean-up Trust.
