David Seymour blames karakia for high power bills. Here's what he gets wrong

The Spinoff

17-07-2025

In a speech this morning, the deputy prime minister said 'blaming isn't productive', then proceeded to link 'roadblocks' such as cultural clauses in resource consents to rates rises leading to high inflation. Liam Rātana takes a different view.
This morning, speaking at the 2025 Local Government New Zealand Conference, deputy prime minister David Seymour told a room full of local government workers that karakia and cultural impact assessments were part of the reason why power prices and food bills were high. He prefaced this by stating 'blaming isn't productive'.
What followed was a barrage of finger pointing and blame-shifting. Rates increases – mostly attributable to a need for local councils to address central government's underinvestment on critical infrastructure – were picked as a key driver of inflation. In what was a confused speech, Seymour also acknowledged many of the costs facing councils weren't of their own making.
What really caught my attention, though, was Seymour's plan for council and communities – particularly the point on reform of the Resource Management Act. It was here Seymour took his chance to criticise his own culture: 'You and your ratepayers want renewable energy but the consenting process demands ceremonial chanting and spreadsheet-level detail about every shrub on site.'
Seymour was referring to a clause included in a resource consent granted by Central Hawke's Bay District Council to Centralines Limited for the construction of a solar farm in Ongaonga. The 'demand' for ceremonial chanting cited by Seymour refers to a clause in the resource consent stating: 'The consent holder shall invite mana whenua to perform karakia for any native trees or plants that need to be removed from the site.' This consent also included a construction condition that states the consent holder must invite mana whenua at least 10 working days prior to the commencement of any works to perform a pre-construction karakia.
A similar clause in a resource consent granted to Swedish furniture giant Ikea for the construction of its store in Sylvia Park was referred to by Seymour. In this instance, the consent stated: 'The consent holder must invite representatives of mana whenua groups… to undertake cultural monitoring, karakia and other such cultural ceremonies on the site' for the pre-start meeting, commencement of earthworks, and immediately prior to the completion of bulk earthworks across the site.
While highlighting these clauses as unnecessary 'red tape' and 'roadblocks', Seymour says his changes will put 'power back with communities'. I wonder which communities he's talking about?
From the resource consent for IKEA in Sylvia Park. This is the kind of fluff that ties up consenting processes and makes everything we do slow and costly in New Zealand. pic.twitter.com/MqzumHVa7f
— Simon Court (@SimonCourtACT) June 27, 2025
A spokesperson for an energy company who was involved with a similar solar project said the clauses Seymour was referring to were 'pretty normal' and if companies want to create strong relationships in development projects, they put in place these types of conditions through mutual agreement.
For the project this company was involved with, the spokesperson said their company had actually requested mana whenua be onsite weekly to provide cultural monitoring and build cultural capacity of the site team.
'If the developers weren't happy with this decision, they would have an opportunity to raise this during the resource consent application process, and if it wasn't resolved during that process then they can appeal the decision,' the spokesperson said.
In the case of the resource consents granted to both Ikea and Centralines Limited, the requirement is to simply extend an invite to mana whenua representatives in advance of milestone dates that are normally identified well before the day. On a practical level, it's as simple as making a phone call or sending an email. If there's no response received, the work goes ahead.
I can almost guarantee mana whenua will not be there to perform a karakia for the removal of every native tree, nor will the companies be cutting them so regularly that they need to extend an invite to mana whenua every other day. The most likely scenario is that a number of trees will be identified well in advance, an invitation to mana whenua extended, and a single karakia performed for several trees prior to their removal. If mana whenua representatives do wish to conduct a karakia or a similar ceremony, the whole process would normally take no longer than an hour or two, at most. It is misleading for the deputy prime minister to claim these are the roadblocks halting development and hiking the price of energy and food.
Besides karakia, Seymour also attacked cultural impact assessments. These are often provided by mana whenua for consent applications or works involving sites of cultural significance. The reports document the cultural values, interests and associations mana whenua have with an area or a resource, and the potential impacts of a proposed activity on these. Seymour's criticism of cultural impact assessments made me wonder just how many he has actually been a part of. Perhaps the minister of regulation's negative perspective of these reports is due to a lack of understanding or lived experience.
In a previous job, I was privileged enough to be part of training mana whenua to carry out cultural impact assessments and took part in the drafting of some reports too. Contrary to Seymour's belief, these assessments aren't some prohibitive cultural gobbledygook. While they aren't always a statutory requirement for resource consent applications, these reports can serve an important role in meeting legal obligations – particularly under the Resource Management Act. Importantly, cultural impact assessments also help to foster stronger relationships and better communication between applicants and tangata whenua, and help identify potential adverse effects early.
Seymour's criticisms reminded me of a pūrākau about the story of Rata, a chief from Savai'i in Samoa who is attributed with the construction of the waka we know today as the Takitimu. The story goes that Rata was eager to construct a waka, so he ventured high into the mountains and found the two best trees for his waka. Rata cut down the trees, only to return the next day to find them standing. This happened multiple times before Rata finally learned that the children of Tāne were reassembling the trees in the night because Rata had not given thanks or performed the correct incantations. For Seymour and his supporters, this might be a pointless tale of folklore but for me, it's a reminder that tikanga Māori was here in Aotearoa long before resource consent applications and cultural impact assessment reports.