While John Key has conceded that these claims have the potential to slow down the timetable for the partial sales of Mighty River and Genesis, he is confident they will still go ahead.
We have been here before and history says that Key is probably right.
The NZMC has a record of taking the Crown to Court supposedly to stop the sale of resources whose ownership is claimed by Māori. But instead of stopping the sales, negotiations between the two have always been followed by a settlement of sorts that allowed the sales to happen.
In 1987 NZMC negotiated the clawback provisions inserted into the SoE Act, and the Crown got to sell large chunks of claim land into SoEs. In 1988, in exchange for the Crown Forestry Rental Trust and further legislatives changes, the Crown got to sell the trees and cutting rights on more claim lands.
In view of that history, and to borrow a phrase from Gordon Campbell, these latest two claims “look less like threats than like invitations to negotiate.”
Today the NZMC’s call is for the Tribunal to recommend a halt on the partial sale of state-owned power companies until Māori claims over the water they run on are settled. In the past, this would have been the signal for the NZMC and Crown to swing into negotiations. But there are a bunch of new kids on the floor now, and the Crown is already talking with them over the ownership of water.
Unlike NZMC, the National Iwi Leaders Forum [ILF] is a non-legislated group of rangatira who are answerable to and instructed by their sovereign hapū and iwi. If an issue impacts their sovereignty, they establish a working group on it. The freshwater working group is chaired by Sir Tumu Te Heuheu.
Some ILF members support the NZMC claims for various reasons; for some it’s about ensuring they’re at the table in any negotiations, others just want the sales stopped, and some are mixed in their motives. But others who know the history aren’t convinced.
Key also knows the history and he doesn’t care who he may have to negotiate with, as long as they can deliver the Māori constituency. In the New Zealand Herald yesterday he said, "The Waitangi Tribunal's rulings are not binding on the Government, so we could choose to ignore what findings they might have – I'm not saying we would, but we could." I read that as his opening negotiation statement.
Where does all this manoeuvring leave those who genuinely want the sales stopped? I am afraid that, unless they’re prepared to do more than tap Mom and Pop on the shoulder, it leaves them on the sidelines watching like wallflowers while the deal is done.
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