Government submission: He Pou a Rangi response to the Waitangi Tribunal's Wai 3325 Climate Change Priority Inquiry (May 2026)
- May 31
- 1 min read
The Waitangi Tribunal's Wai 3325 Climate Change Priority Inquiry is examining whether the Crown has met its Te Tiriti obligations in its response to climate change — including in legislation, adaptation planning, and engagement with iwi and Māori. This document is He Pou a Rangi's formal response to the Tribunal, submitted in May 2026, setting out how the Commission fulfils its statutory obligations under the Climate Change Response Act in relation to the Crown-Māori relationship, te ao Māori, and the specific effects of climate change on iwi and Māori.
The submission outlines the Commission's functions, its internal Māori capability structures (including Pou Herenga and the Manahautū Māori role), and its approach to engagement with iwi/Māori across its work programme. Significantly, it draws on findings from the 2026 National Climate Change Risk Assessment, which rated all seven assessed risks to ngā mea hirahira o te ao Māori at major severity by 2050 — and found readiness across those risks to be critically insufficient. The Commission also flags that the Crown's ability to uphold Te Tiriti in adaptation governance remains at risk, with progress fragmented and governance arrangements still unclear.
For Project Kāinga, this submission is directly relevant. It confirms at the national level what hapū communities across Te Tai Tokerau are already experiencing on the ground — that climate change bears disproportionately on Māori, that government systems remain structurally ill-equipped to support Māori-led adaptation, and that the case for hapū-defined, community-grounded responses has now been formally acknowledged in the Commission's own advice to the Crown.
