Maori Party commends iwi in keeping pressure on

Te Ururoa Flavell; Treaty spokesperson, maori party

Thursday 22 March 2007

Treaty Spokesperson, Te Ururoa Flavell, has welcomed the news that the Government has awoken to the storm brewing around ‘surplus’ state owned land, agreeing to allow more time to consider the procedures properly.

“We appreciate the response of the SOE Minister to the issues we have brought to his attention regarding: the mis-management of lands; the incompetency of agency processes; the breakdown in communication from OTS, Landcorp and relevant Ministers; and the deals being done to which tangata whenua have said absolutely NO WAY” said Mr Flavell.

“We note, of course, the timeliness of yesterday’s announcement with both the High Court injunction application in Hamilton, with a hearing set down for next week; and the Judicial Conference before the Waitangi Tribunal this Friday with claimants seeking a resumption order for the return of the Landcorp land to Hauraki Maori” said Mr Flavell.

“The powers of the Tribunal for resumption of Landcorp's Whenuakite Station have only been used on one occasion before, so we are seeing all the talents and strategies of the iwi coming to the fore” said Mr Flavell.

“We commend the diligence of Hauraki mandated representatives in keeping the pressure up on the Government to permanently withdraw Hauraki Landcorp properties (Whenuakite station and Ngatea) from sale and have them instead available for their treaty settlement unencumbered” said Mr Flavell.

“We note that the stay of sale for Whenuakite has a twelve month life, so we must never be lulled in to a state where we mistakenly think this government and its agents has seen the error of its ways. We must forever stay alert to what may lie ahead" said Mr Flavell.

“The first step was to halt the sale; and to take it off the market – the next will be to put the land into Treaty negotiations” said Mr Flavell.

“They have also kept the Government honest in terms of identifying Landcorp's mis-management of Whenuakite Station” said Mr Flavell. “Local knowledge also suggests that Landcorp has deliberately rundown the value of the property”.

“Just yesterday, we asked a question in the House to the Treaty Minister, Mark Burton, about the sale by Landcorp of some 1.8 million Fonterra shares; worth $11.7m from Ngatea Farm” said Mr Flavell.

The 2006 Annual Report of Landcorp discloses the sale of these shares (p45), and notes that profit on the sale of the shares was $11.773M. If they were sold today the return would be $11.808M.

"The Maori Party looks forward to making an ongoing contribution to these complex issues” said Mr Flavell. “And we will certainly be encouraging iwi to keep going with their very successful strategies - strategies which are bringing acknowledgement of rangatiratanga into the House”.

ENDS

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