"We are gutted that the Attorney General is opposing the ruling of the Court of Appeal, in effect bolstering a mining company that is disregarding Treaty and environment law to push through a consent that risks environmental disaster for Aotearoa," Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui kaiarataki (CEO) Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said.
"This new Government, if true to their stated goal of being transformational and protecting precious marine environments, should not be siding with fossil fuel interests in landmark legal cases."
Ngawera-Packer said consent for TTR would allow access to up to 50 million tonnes of ironsands every year, "an act of environmental vandalism that would destroy entire ecosystems and change our coastlines forever".
"By rejecting the rulings of the Court of Appeal, who argued that Treaty rights and the purpose of Act needed to be interpreted in the widest possible way, the Attorney General is seeking to undo a ground-breaking legal precedent that could help tangata whenua and environmental groups defend the marine environment for years to come.
"While the Attorney General can set out how Parliament intended to develop law and provide insight on the parliamentary intent, to effectively cherry pick pieces of that intent to help an international mining company goes against a piece of legislation that is there to protect our precious environment and is doing exactly what Parliament intended."
Ngāti Ruanui "expected more" from the Government, Ngarewa-Packer said, and it was time "to be brave and stand up for our environment and for Treaty rights".
"Instead, this intervention undermines them.
"The Court of Appeal made a clear and balanced ruling and we believe the Supreme Court will do the same.
"The view of the Attorney General will be shown up for what is, an attempt to prop up a dying mining industry set to destroy the environment for pure economic gain."
The Māori Party also opposed Parker's intervention, co-leader and Waiariki MP Rawiri Waititi said.
"It is unacceptable that Government is intervening in a legal case to support an international mining company against tangata whenua," Waititi said.
"The Attorney General's views on Te Tiriti rights and environmental law are outrageous. Labour talk a big game on the environment and Te Tiriti rights, but this is just another example of them failing to deliver.
"Ngāti Ruanui and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have led the fight against seabed mining in Aotearoa. From the Raukūmara to Te Hiku to Kaikōura to Pātea, Māori have been on the frontline of resisting the fossil fuel industry and protecting Tangaroa.
"The Māori Party would ban seabed mining across Aotearoa. It is a risky and untested practice that could cause unprecedented damage to our marine environment.
"The Government needs to rescind its submission to the Supreme Court and instead put in place a ban on seabed mining permits in the EEZ."
A statement from the Attorney General's office said the Supreme Court, in granting leave to appeal, invited the Attorney-General to intervene in order to make submissions "in relation to te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori customary interests and the applicability of tikanga to marine and marine consent discharge applications".
"The Attorney-General as the Crown's Senior Law Officer is the usual named Crown party when there is no relevant government department in the proceeding (see Crown Proceedings Act, s14)," the statement said.
"The Attorney-General's intervention is not to take a role in the dispute between the parties. Rather the application to intervene was made expressly on the basis that the Attorney-General's submissions would be limited to the above mentioned issues of law.
"The Attorney-General's role is neutral as to the substance of the case and the dispute between the parties."
