SETTLE OR SUE

Under the Crown’s Treaty settlement programme, Iwi can choose to either settle with or sue the Crown.  In Te Hiku o Te Ika, apart from Ngāti Kahu, all Iwi have chosen the settlement option.  As a result, last month Ngāti Kahu filed three applications with the Waitangi Tribunal for an urgent hearing objecting to the Crown’s deeds of settlement with Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto. in so far as they cause prejudice to Ngāti Kahu 

Amongst other things, Ngāti Kahu objected to the inclusion in the Crown’s deeds with those other iwi of lands in which Ngāti Kahu holds mana whenua.  These include the forest, Hukatere, Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē, Te Make (Sweetwater farm), Kaimaumau and Rangiāniwaniwa.  Ngāti Kahu also objected to the Crown’s attempt to impose on them the agreement with other Iwi over lands administered by the Department of Conservation.

These three urgency applications are quite distinct from the remedies application that Ngāti Kahu had already filed for relief via both binding and ordinary recommendations against the Crown.  As reported last week, the success of that application is looking good.  However, at the most recent judicial conference, the positions of the other Iwi were very interesting. 

In spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that the Crown has promised to settle his client with large chunks of other Iwi’s lands, the Te Aupōuri lawyer complained bitterly that Ngāti Kahu were delaying their settlement.  Even though the Crown confirmed it is nowhere near ready to introduce legislation on any of the settlements, in his eyes the delay is all Ngāti Kahu’s fault.  In any event, it is not a matter for the Tribunal.

Meanwhile, Te Rarawa’s lawyer tried to argue that her client would not only take the lands settled on them in the Crown’s deed, but they should also be given a share in any lands that Ngāti Kahu are awarded as relief where they share mana whenua. Essentially Te Rarawa want to double-dip by first benefitting through settlement with the Crown, and then benefitting again via the relief Ngāti Kahu get from binding recommendations against the Crown. However, the Tribunal judge told their lawyer very clearly they could not do that because they had chosen to settle their claims with the Crown, not file an application against it with the Tribunal.  So that was the end of that.

As for Ngāti Kuri, their lawyer advised the Tribunal that his client had withdrawn their objection to Te Aupōuri’s deed of settlement because the Crown had agreed to re-open negotiations in respect of key areas that the Crown was vesting in Te Aupōuri.  Exactly what those re-opened negotiations will garner for Ngāti Kuri is not yet known.

Ngāi Takoto are not a party to the remedies application.

The Tribunal has yet to decide whether it will hear Ngāti Kahu‘s three applications for urgency.  To that end it will hold a judicial conference, probably in the week of 16 July and probably in Auckland.