MEDIA RELEASE
INDEPENDENT MAORI STATUTORY BOARD FOR AUCKLAND
Tuesday 15 February 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPDATE ON LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

The Independent Maori Statutory Board formally resolved today to initiate court proceedings to clarify the decision-making process around its funding from the Auckland Council.

The Chairman of the Board, David Taipari, said the purpose of the proceedings would be "clarification not confrontation".

"Councillors have said they do not understand the law passed by Parliament," he said. "The proper and responsible way to establish what the law means is by seeking a declaratory judgment from the High Court and that is what we have resolved to do. It may be that the Council itself would like to join us in seeking such a judgment, and we would welcome that as a way forward."

Mr Taipari also announced that the Board had resolved to send a letter to the Council setting out the Board's views of its powers, and inviting the Council to meet with the Board again to continue the discussions around the Board's role and funding. The letter would also invite the Council to join the Court proceedings.

"Our view of the law is very clear: the Council must meet the Board's reasonable costs in carrying out our statutory functions," Mr Taipari said. "We have worked very hard and very carefully since mid-December to ensure our forecast costs are reasonable, and Council officers and its finance and strategy committee unanimously recognised them as reasonable as recently as last week. Our view is that the law requires the Board's statutory obligations to determine its work programme and therefore the funding it requires. Our work programme is not something that can legally be determined by some arbitrary council-imposed budget."

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